The Headline
by Roshelle Diall
Summary: Kyouko is in love. She thought she had all the time in the world to tell him and that everyone close to her would always be there. It all changed once she read the headline. Now it's a race against time to make her feelings known. Rated M for the usual.
1. Change of Plans

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

Kyouko, after finishing up some work for LoveMe was walking to lunch with Kanae and Chiori.

"Mou! I'm so glad that we're done categorizing the last of those dramas. If I see another reference room again, it will be too soon!"

"If I have to see anymore bad acting, I think I'll scream." Chiori added.

Kyouko wasn't really paying attention. She had just finished up another stint as Setsu and her mind was on other matters.

"Kyouko! Earth to Kyouko." both Kanae and Chiori looked at her with frowns on their faces.

"I was asking how filming was going?" Chiori asked.

"I bet you get NG'd on purpose to spend more time being close to that sempai of yours." Kanae added with a sly grin.

"It's not like that, Mouko. Quite the opposite actually." Kyouko replied as a blush painted her cheeks.

Her current role was one opposite of Ren. She played an abused wife who, with the help of a personal trainer, learned how to defend herself and get away from her husband. In the process of preparing for this final event, they would fall in love with each other. Kyouko never thought in a million years that Ren would actually accept the role.

From Kyouko's understanding, the only reason Ren agreed to take on the part was because the director was Seishi Shingai, who she remembered from the Ring-Doh film when she first started at LME. This was also a special project, one of the reasons Kyouko herself had jumped at the chance to act in it. Once the movie was released a portion of the earnings would go to a charity for abused women and children. There was actually one more reason that he took it but Kyouko wasn't aware of that one.

Kyouko sighed to herself as she remembered how filming had started. It was necessary for Ren to enhance his already rigorous workout routine. He already had muscle before and now he looked so much more defined. Kyouko was looking at him in a whole new light. They were a little past the halfway point of filming at this point where their characters were getting closer.

Kyouko tried to prepare herself, thinking that their close contact as brother and sister would help, but so far she was failing miserably. Every time Ren touched her or kissed her, or if Kyouko found herself close to his body, she went out of character with annoying ease. She wouldn't even talk about how hard it was for her to keep her hands off of him. Kyouko felt like she was a different person with these new urges she was feeling.

Luckily, Shingai had been fine with the takes up to this point. The quicker Kyouko could end the scenes, the better, especially with her newly realized feelings so close to the surface. She didn't dare talk about her recent thoughts because they were too embarrassing. No matter how much she tried to explain it away, she could no longer ignore it. Even so, Kyouko made a promise to herself that Ren absolutely could not find out. She did not want to continue to disappoint him.

"Aren't you guys hungry? Let's go eat!" Chiori chimed in as they all went over to the restaurant.

Once there, they ordered their usual meals. They sat in silence as they ate, each caught up in their thoughts as they people watched. Once they were done, they talked about the work they had left to do for the day. Twenty minutes later they left, walking back to LME to finish up their tasks. Out of nowhere, a man accidentally ran into Kyouko, who was walking on the outside, the farthest to the left on the sidewalk.

'_That's weird seeing a blond man in Tokyo._' she thought as she looked at the man.

He stopped for only a second before looking at her, "My humble apologies." he said with a smile.

Kyouko was lost in the green eyes looking back at her. She had only seen one other man that was so tall and the way he looked at her was as if he knew her. Her foot hit something and she looked down and saw the newspaper. She picked it up and was about to call out but looked up and saw that he was gone.

"Mou! Kyouko what are you staring into space for?"

"Didn't you see the man that was here?" Kyouko frowned, moving the paper so it was under her left arm.

"No, not at all." Chiori replied.

Neither of them seemed to notice the paper that she held either.

"Lunch is almost done so we better get going." Kanae said, pulling Kyouko along. "We all have a busy rest of the day."

Kyouko frowned again as they made their way through the LME doors. They all went straight for the LoveMe room and to their lockers. Kanae had paperwork to attend to on the 20th floor while Chiori had a commercial to do and was changing to leave for the afternoon. Kyouko had some time to spare before needing to get back to her work on the tenth floor.

"Alright guys, I'll see you tomorrow." Chiori announced with a wave as Kyouko and Kanae nodded their good-byes.

"I'll talk to you later." Kanae said as she headed for the door as well.

"Bye Mouko!" Kyouko replied with a wave.

Kyouko's attention now focused back to the paper she had picked up. Looking at it, she saw it was a copy of _The Japan Times._ Kyouko looked at the date and frowned, seeing that it wasn't today's date. The paper said, Monday, August 12, 2013 but today was Friday, August 2. That's ten days from now. Kyouko looked at the headline then and froze in her chair. Her face went pale as her stomach lurched, her lunch now felt like a heavy weight.

"What IS this?" she said to herself.

Kyouko scanned the article as her heart began to race. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked at the date again, still not fully believing what she was reading.

"How can this be?" she said softly, "What does it mean? Who exactly will be the victims?"

She closed her eyes as she felt the tears begin to form. This wasn't happening. There was no reason for her to have a paper that was dated for ten days in the future.

"What do I do?" she whispered as the tears started to flow.

This had to be a bad dream. She could not have possibly read what she just did. She looked at it one more time, willing the words to disappear but they didn't. She sat on the couch and took some calming breaths, thinking about the people who were important to her. The President, Maria, Mouko and finally...Tsuruga-san. Not to mention the Okami and Taisho, Yashiro and Chiori. What would this mean for all of them? Why now?

What could be done? Something had to be done. Finally with a look of resolve on her face, Kyouko got up and went to her locker. She grabbed her cell phone and dialed as she went back to the couch to sit down, clutching the paper in her hand the whole time. She was holding onto it so hard now that her knuckles were white.

"Yes, I need to talk to the President immediately. It's an extremely urgent and important matter. He has to get back to me right away. Thank you very much. Goodbye."

Kyouko hung up the phone, still trying to regain her composure. No matter what, she had to do something. Anything that she could do to prevent this, she would do it. There was definitely a reason she had received this information now. The thought of her own unrequited feelings popped up into her head. She was now in a leading role with a man that she loved, trying desperately to keep her feelings hidden.

It all seemed so stupid now. What was her hangup exactly? Yes she had been hurt before and she hated the way that she felt when it came to this emotion. She had to find some way to get over this. The President had said she needed to open up her boundaries if she wanted to get anywhere as an actress. Wasn't it why she was wearing this uniform in the first place?

She clenched her fist, maybe this her wake-up call. She should just forget about the consequences and just do it. Just put herself out there and be prepared for what would happen. That in itself was the problem. The thought of rejection was just too much and too painful. Kyouko realized now just how much she had taken for granted. She had always assumed everyone would always be there. This said different.

Kyouko figured everyone close to her would always be there and that she had all the time in the world. She could always sit back and wait until the time was right, couldn't she? She could always be in the background as everyone else moved on and embraced what they had to in order to get better.

Kyouko's tears started again as she realized this course of action just wouldn't work anymore. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, there was a new reality. With that she had to deal with the hand fate had dealt her way. Kyouko had to act, not just in her movie but also on her feelings for Ren. She hoped to be able to change their fate in the process but if nothing else, if these ended up being the last few days they would spend together, she had to make each one of them count.

'_It looks like I'll have to deal with this sooner than I thought. Still for right now, this is what matters. This right here, in front of my eyes.'_

She turned back to the front page looking at the words she would not soon forget,

**"TEN INJURED, FOUR DEAD IN FIERY CAR CRASH." **screamed the headline and underneath that in smaller letters,

**LME Talents and Two Children Among the Victims**

Kyouko had a little more than nine days to accomplish two of the most important tasks of her life: To try and save lives and confess her feelings to the man she loved.

* * *

**A/N: Here is my new story idea. I was working on a creative writing prompt for my writing group and felt like this would be great to use for a new Skip Beat! fic. Don't think the worst because I definitely would have put it in the summary. I'm operating on the fact that since it's known now they can go about doing what they can to change it. I added the supernatural category but it only has to do with the newspaper and why she got it. **


	2. Where's Your Head At?

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

* * *

The clock said 4:30 pm as the LoveMe women gathered in President Takarada's mansion. They were all waiting for Ren and Yashiro. He had an appearance and would be arriving around 5 pm.

Kyouko handed the President the paper. He frowned as he read. Once he finished, he looked up, getting the phone that Sebastian already had ready for him. Lory took it and dialed, pausing until he heard the voice on the other end,

"Yes, I need you to connect me to Tadao Kusomoto. Thank you."

The three women sat quietly as Lory waited in silence on the phone.

"Hello Tadao, it's me Lory. I know it's not something that you like to do but I just had something I needed your help with. I know it sounds a little crazy but you know me so I hope you're willing to humor me here. To sweeten the deal, if you do I promise that you will be the first to know some important new information concerning my company."He gave a laugh before he nodded, "I knew you were a smart man, Kusomoto-san. All I need to know are the titles for two articles that you plan to have in the August 12 edition of the paper."

Sebastian moved next to him to begin turning the pages. Lory nodded, stopping Sebastian on one page as he pointed out an article. Then Sebastian started turning again when Lory stopped him, moving his finger to a corner of the page as both he and Sebastian exchanged a look. Sebastian started turning a third time when Lory gave another nod of his head, putting his finger down as he read the top of the page.

"I see. Thank you very much." he paused. "This has really cleared things up. I really do appreciate it." Lory nodded again and then with a laugh, "Yes, I'll be sure to let you know. Bye."

Lory then handed the paper back to Kyouko as he sighed,

"I guess that answers that question. You didn't talk to the person who gave this to you?"

Kyouko shook her head, "I'm sorry. The man ran into me and took off. He was gone so fast I didn't get the chance. I did see that he had blond hair and green eyes. I got the weirdest feeling looking at him, like he knew me somehow. He was also really tall."

"At least we know so we can try to do something about it. Unfortunately trying to predict the future isn't so simple. We're not mind readers. There's no way of knowing if something we're doing now will still lead up to what happens. Despite our best efforts all of us could still find ourselves out there when this occurs." Lory replied rubbing the golden crown he was wearing.

Lory's red velour cape fluttered slightly as he sat back in his chair.

"Sebastian has gone over your schedules. We did our best to cancel what we could. By the looks of things, you two will be staying together." he continued motioning to Kanae and Chiori, "Decide between the two of you who lives closer to the studio and you'll both stay there."

"I live closer President Lory." Chiori said.

Kanae breathed a sigh of relief. Who knew what random family member of hers would show up unannounced to her apartment.

"As for you, Mogami, due to your current filming schedule I see no choice but for you to stay with Ren. It will be easier for everyone since the Darumaya is the farthest away from where you're working. That and Ren is also closer to where you guys are filming."

"Yes, sir." She said as she gulped.

This wasn't exactly what she expected but it did make her task that much easier. Or was it that much harder? She hadn't really been this close to him outside of them being the Heel siblings. Being around Ren without a disguise was not going to be easy.

'_Pull yourself together. This could very well be the last few days you'll spend with him.'_

Just the thought of it started to bring tears to Kyouko's eyes even as a part of her continued to fight the idea.

"Okay then. Ren should be here shortly and I'll go over everything. I'll leave the article reading to you." Lory said looking in Kyouko's direction.

"Yes, President."

Twenty minutes later, Japan's number one actor was now in the room along with his manager.

"The reason that I brought you all here today is important. Remember that no matter how we handle this the possibility of it occurring is still high. Hopefully by getting ahead of everything we can prevent this from happening." Lory said dramatically.

'_Just what is he going on about?'_ Ren thought, '_Why is he being so cryptic about everything?_'

"Go ahead Mogami-kun."

Kyouko swallowed, "Well to start off I found this paper today at lunch and it had a date of August 12 on it. I don't know why I got it but there was no doubt in my mind that this would take place." she stopped as her voice started to falter.

She started reading, **_"Ten Injured and Four Dead in Fiery Car Crash. LME Talents and Two Children Among the Victims."_**

Kyouko stopped as everyone stopped to take in the ominous message. Then she continued, reading only the important facts,

**_"On Sunday August 11, at around 7:30 pm, a three car accident happened right in front of LME Studios during an afterparty following an awards show celebrating the studio's 30th anniversary. A red car moving at a high rate of speed crashed into an oncoming car and a parked car as well as pedestrians who were walking on the sidewalk according to witnesses. Upon impact two vehicles caught fire immediately. The drivers in both cars perished in addition to a pedestrian. Eleven other people including two children were rushed to the hospital, six of them with critical injuries._**

**_It has been determined that two of the dead and one of the critically injured were acting talents at LME. Alcohol is believed to have been a factor in the crash. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Dept in conjunction with the Tokyo Metropolitan Hospital said that officially there were three dead at the scene and eleven that were brought to the hospital with six of them in critical condition. One person later died at the hospital. Out of respect and privacy for the victims, no names or photos have been released until next of kin can be notified."_**

Lory looked gravely around the room. "Now obviously all we can gather from this is that there are three people from LME that will be affected. We have no idea of who they will be and the time doesn't help either so it can be anyone."

Everyone in the room frowned and looked at each other as he continued,

"We can easily have you all avoid using your cars but we also know, one person was on the sidewalk. There's also no way to know who was involved by looking at the picture." he finished grimly.

"This is just terrible." Chiori said as she kept wringing her hands. "How are we supposed to know what to do? It makes me want to stay inside for the next ten days" she was near tears as Kanae and Kyouko sat down to comfort her.

"Unfortunately there's no way to really do that." Yashiro remarked grimly, "I know you guys aren't as busy as Ren, but I'm sure there's filming you won't be able to push back. As for us, I can cancel most of Ren's appearances but there are still some of them he'll have to go to. I can probably get Shingai to push things back by a day, but as you know they still have to show up to do filming."

"What's the point in filming anyway?" Kanae stated. "It seems like a waste of time."

"We still have no idea exactly who is involved." Lory began, "And I want you to carry on as you usually would. These directors and film crews have set aside time in their schedule to film and that's what we'll do. There's no need to sound alarms when none are necessary. We know an accident is going to happen. It will occur on a sidewalk and not behind a camera."

Lory frowned again as he continued,

"I've already decided that for now, we'll have to group you guys together. We want to get to our destinations using the shortest routes possible so that you're spending less time walking and on the road, especially concerning LME. I can scale back most of your duties here."

"What about the anniversary show?" Kyouko asked

"It appears the afterparty is the issue and not the show." Lory replied. "I'll cancel the show. Even though months of work have been put in it's worth it to spare lives. Actually...perhaps we'll move that up by a day so that you're not here on Sunday. I hate to see all of that hard work go to waste. I'll do what Ican to make sure that you're not near the building Sunday, but even the best laid plans have sudden changes." Lory finished.

"Right now Mogami-san and I are working the same film, so it will probably be more convenient for her to stay with me." Ren chimed in.

"My thoughts exactly." Lory said, "I've already decided that's what we will do."

They all nodded as he looked over to Sebastian before he continued,

"I will arrange for cars to be picking you up for the next few days so that you are not driving. Yashiro, you will let Ren know the night before if it's necessary for the car to come pick you up. Also when you are out, try to take care of as much as you can so that you aren't making multiple trips. I know the incident is not supposed to happen for a while but the better prepared we are, the more we will be able to avoid it."

They all nodded their understanding.

"I just want you all to be careful. I will also be putting in a call to see if I can get extra security or police officers for Sunday so that so many people aren't in the area. We want to try to save as many people as we can. Even with all of our precautions we have no way of knowing what will happen to change things. Despite our best efforts we may not be able to change anything. I will continue working with Sebastian to arrange some back up measures in case we find ourselves in exactly the same situation."

Everybody stood, as Lory got up from behind his desk. "In the meantime, if you have any concerns, please contact me at once. I also want you guys to keep in touch with each other. The cars are on their way now, so you can leave your vehicles here."

They all got up and left the President's office and waited outside. One car was already waiting so Kanae and Chiori hopped in, waving good-bye to their friend. Kyouko pulled out her phone and called the Okami to let her know of her temporary living arrangements. She hung up and walked over to Ren and Yashiro.

"So how are you handling all of this?" Ren asked her.

"Not very well at all, I'm afraid." Kyouko stated quietly. "I don't know if there's any way to prevent this from happening."

Ren put an arm around her shoulder, "I think we're doing enough to at least give it our best shot." he replied with a smile.

Kyouko smiled back at him, her heart pounding wildly.

"Tell you what, tonight when we get in we'll hit the gym and work on your defensive stances. I've been noticing that you're freezing up on me. The director hasn't noticed but if it keeps up you'll start racking up NG's."

Kyouko tried to suppress a blush as she remembered exactly why that was. Even if she was just practicing self defense moves, feeling his hard body and his arms around her were the reasons for her wanton reactions.

"That's fine, I'll just have to change out of this." Kyouko said motioning to her bright pink uniform, "But we can't be at it for too long. You do have to eat."

"That reminds me." Yashiro jumped in, "Do you even have food at your place?"

Ren sighed which answered his question.

"Looks like we'll have to stop at the store then." Kyouko said as the car pulled up.

* * *

It was now 6:30 pm as Kyouko changed into her workout clothing. She grabbed the black capri workout leggings and her red Nike workout tank top provided to her by the production company. She had five more sets just like it. She put on her matching red Nike shoes and went to wash her face before walking to Ren's gym area.

Kyouko took a few deep breaths before entering. No matter what happened, she had to make sure that her mind didn't wander. Kyouko couldn't figure out why her body was betraying her so badly after all of this time. She also wasn't sure what she could do to stop it. She couldn't remember ever feeling so out of control both with her acting and with her life in general. It wasn't good that even he noticed how much she was becoming unnerved while on set.

They hadn't even started the scenes with the other two defensive stances. Those were ones she was trying to avoid even looking at. Ones where she had to be pinned underneath his body to try to free herself. They hadn't even made it that deep into the love scenes either. Kyouko closed her eyes again, taking another deep breath and willing herself to stay in control. Walking into the gym, she stopped in her tracks.

Ren had on black sweatpants. Even though they were supposed to be loose fitting, she could see the faint outline of his hamstrings and calf muscles. As for the upper half of his body, he had on nothing at all. Kyouko could see he had just finished lifting some weights. He was still slightly damp as he grabbed a water bottle. Kyouko couldn't take her eyes off of him as he wiped himself down.

Kyouko found herself wishing she could be that towel. Her eyes focused on the chiseled contours of his chest and then made their way down to his stomach. She already knew what it felt like to run her fingers over his near perfect body and now she wondered how his skin would feel against her lips. She closed her eyes as she realized she was way too focused on the waistband of his sweats and tried to remove such impure thoughts from her head.

Kyouko blushed slightly as Ren turned to look at her, giving a nod of his head as he took a drink, trying to ignore her outfit but noticing the way she had looked at him. Maybe it was the movie filming but he was just happy that she was finally starting to see him as a man and not just as her sempai.

Ren tried his best not to pay attention to the way the leggings clung to her petite curves. His mouth was suddenly dry again. Her top left almost nothing to the imagination even with the built in bra. His mind wandered, thinking of how she felt on top of him while they were filming. Each time he had to kiss her he became lost in her, and was out of character almost instantly. He had never been manipulated so much while acting and there was never a time that he had wanted so badly to be exploited. Until now. As long as it was Kyouko, he didn't care.

"Ready?" Kyouko asked timidly as she walked over to him. She toyed with the idea of asking him about a shirt, but realized it would be rude to tell him how he needed to dress in his own home.

"Yes." Ren replied, capping his water bottle and putting it down, "We'll start with the first move. Come here."

She walked over to him and faced the front, making sure that her back was to him.

"Mogami-san, you have to get closer. Your body has to be right up against mine."

She sighed and moved back, "How's this?"

"There, that's good. Now I'm taller than Arata but not by too much." he said, referring to Arata Fujimori, the actor who played her husband. "Remember from the training that the most natural and short movement is the best and right movement."

Kyouko nodded, trying to keep the fact that she was so close to him out of her mind. Ren was trying to do the same. After seeing her in that outfit, he had to keep telling himself over and over that this was for the sake of the movie. He didn't want any kohai of his to get too many NG's. He also had to do what he could to keep his desire in check or else she'd notice pretty quickly with how close they were.

"Now I'm going to wrap my arm around you like this. Remember Mogami-san, it's the shortest movement. When I count to three start your move."

Ren counted to three but she didn't move,

"You're doing it again, Mogami-san."

"I know, I'm sorry." Kyouko replied, attempting to keep her voice steady. Try as she might all she could feel was his strong muscles and bare skin against the exposed areas of her arms and back. How could she move with the shock waves going through her body? "I'm ready now."

He wrapped his arm around her neck, "Okay. One...two...three!"

Kyouko used her left arm to grip the arm he had around her neck . This gave her some leverage to move her right leg back and up so that her foot hit him where it would hurt him the most. She had to make sure not to actually have it connect. Once the kick to his groin had the desired effect of causing him to loosen his arm, Kyouko used her right arm to remove it from around her neck and then turned and gave him two punches right to the face, again not actually connecting. Once that worked she had to run to higher ground to put the rest of her plan in action according to the script.

"Very well done." Ren replied with smile, "Now we'll keep doing it until the moves feel completely natural."

An hour later, Kyouko finally felt comfortable enough in his grip though the highly charged current igniting between them only got stronger. They were here to act and did their best to ignore the soft dips and hard lines of each other's bodies.

"Okay we'll do the final sequence just once and then end for tonight." Ren said.

Kyouko wiped her face and nodded, taking a sip of water. Ren couldn't help but notice the sweat that clung to her body as she used the now closed water bottle to cool herself off, rubbing it along her neck and face. It was just sending his thoughts in all of the wrong directions. He wanted to put her into the nearest shower and get her wet in more ways than one.

Imagining her luscious body against his, water dripping down her supple skin as he used his fingers and his mouth to pleasure her until she moaned and writhed against him, completely losing herself in his arms. Yes, that would be a welcome treat after working out. He shook his head, clearing the vivid image of her out of his mind, adjusting himself and grabbing another bottle of water. He took his time, taking a sip to allow his erection to go down.

She was against the wall now. In this move he had to wrap his hands around her neck. Kyouko closed her eyes as she felt Ren getting closer, not sure if she could look at him. She felt his hands on her neck which meant that his arms were on either side of her. Kyouko imagined that his arms were on either side of her for a different reason.

Instead of his hands being around her neck, they would be against the wall, his arms caging her in. Her eyes would be closed while he moved her back to the wall, his mouth moving closer to hers, both of them wanting him to do the same thing. Finally his lips would take hers in a demanding kiss. She'd sigh, her hands moving up to his shoulders as he lifted her up and delved deeper into her mouth, just like he had done during filming that morning. His wet warm lips would be pressed firmly against hers as he ravaged her mouth. Kyouko would be unable to control the sounds that left her as Ren grabbed her, pulling her hard up against him.

"Mogami-san, open your eyes." came Ren's voice, "You can't do this right if you're not looking."

She opened her eyes slowly as reality came crashing back. "Sorry." she replied quickly, suppressing a shiver as his warm breath caressed her damp skin. She moved her legs a little, feeling uncomfortable.

In the script she had to play dead so that her husband would loosen his grip. Then she would move her arms up before coming down as hard as she could, using her elbows as weapons on his arms. From there she would lunge forward and kick him in the stomach, groin or wherever she had to in order to get away.

"Mogami-san?" Ren questioned her softly.

"I was just remembering my exact move." she looked at him and smiled, quickly realizing her mistake as her heart started beating faster and she felt butterflies down in her belly.

He had his hands back around her throat. Kyouko took a breath as she went completely still and then moved her arms up, planting her elbows into Ren's arms, lunging toward him with all of her body weight at the same time. She was supposed to lunge after she moved her arms up. Ren was caught by surprise and he started falling down. Kyouko's forward movement caused her to fall at the same time.

She closed her eyes and threw out her hands, bracing herself for the impact but quickly realized that her landing had been soft. Opening her eyes, Kyouko's breath caught as she found herself staring into Ren's eyes, her hands planted firmly on his sculpted chest. She tried to move but his hand on her back held her in place. Ren just wanted to make sure she was okay, but he'd be lying to himself if he said he had a problem with such close contact. Kyouko found that she liked the way he felt underneath her, though she'd never say it out loud. Without thinking, she moved her mouth closer to his.

_'I did not just do that! Now what?_' her panicked mind wondered as they continued to look at each other.

* * *

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	3. Shake It Off

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

**Also, THANK YOU so much for all of your reviews, faves and follows. ^_^**

_**Movie lines are bold and italicized.**_

* * *

Ren moved up as Kyouko moved down, and they bumped their heads.

'_This is crazy! What was I thinking?' _Kyouko turned her eyes away from him and moved back. "I'm really sorry!" she managed, "Thank you for catching me." '_It's a good thing I didn't act on my shameless thoughts. I would have been seriously embarrassed.'_

Taking it as a sign, Ren cleared his throat, "I think that's a good place to stop. We'll try this again tomorrow. Unless you don't feel like you're ready for filming in the morning." Ren said quietly, his eyes still focused on her.

Kyouko nodded "I'll be alright." she stated, now starting to push herself off of him.

"Good to hear. In the meantime, we can take take our shower together before dinner."

Kyouko gave Ren an incredulous look and he caught his slip,

"Showers." Ren mentally cursed himself, "We can take our _showers_ together...in different bathrooms at the same time." he needed to think about something else.

"That sounds good." Kyouko replied, now trying to get the image of his wet, naked body out of her head from their time together as the Heel siblings. '_I still can't believe I didn't take advantage of that opportunity.'_ Kyouko gave a slight frown as she continued, "Take as much time as you need. Dinner will be ready when you're done."

Forty minutes later, they ate dinner in relative silence, talking a little about what to expect the next day.

"Are things getting any better between you and Izumi?" Ren asked.

Kyouko shook her head, "Not really." she replied, talking about Omura Izumi, the actress who played Kyouko's best friend in the movie. "She still thinks she should have starred beside you since she's closer to your age."

"I would never want to have her as a co-star." he replied as his anger started to peak. "You've been acting for a whole year more than she has. That's no way to treat a sempai and she should learn to be more professional."

Kyouko took a bite of her fish as she looked away. At one time he had said the same thing about her. Luckily, Kyouko began to appreciate acting for how it helped her personally. Kyouko would just have to keep dealing with the woman even though what she went through with Chiori at her worst was nothing compared to now. She kept saying the right things that got right under Kyouko's skin.

Kyouko still felt that she had to remain kind. She had finally gotten away from the bullying roles and had no intention of letting the woman walk all over her but there was no reason to let her dark side be seen, not yet anyway. Kyouko was sure she would have no choice as the filming went on, Izumi was much more sneaky and conniving, not daring to do anything out in the open.

"You'll let me know if she gets worse?"

Kyouko nodded, "Don't worry so much. I've dealt with it before, and I'll take care of it now." Nothing could be more embarrassing than still relying on him in these matters. She had to prove herself to everyone, including Ren.

They cleared the table and started doing the dishes.

"Thanks for dinner, Mogami-san."

"It was no problem. I'm always happy to do it. Now if you'll excuse me..." she replied, going to grab her laptop. "I have to go start my research."

"Oh, does that have to do with your private meeting with Director Shingai this morning?"

Kyouko flushed as she recalled his words. She could hear Director Shingai clearly saying to her, "Kyouko, I'd like you to take more initiative when filming some of the more intimate scenes. Given what your character has been through, it shows that you trust who you're with and that you are willing to allow him to protect you both inside and outside of your home."

"Yes, I need to get a better handle on what I have to do." she responded.

"I don't know exactly what you guys discussed, but I am more than happy to help you however I can." Ren said, flashing her a gentlemanly smile.

He was teasing her again, Kyouko was sure of it. "I'm fine at the moment, but I'll be sure to let you know if I do." she made a hasty retreat to the guest bedroom.

Turning on the screen, Kyouko started to type words into the search engine and clicked on the first article that popped up. She pulled out her notebook and pen as she began to scan the article,

"Try whispering: _"I want you" _seductively in his ear." she read to herself as she wrote down some notes, "Or If you're shy about it, a long, deep, lingering kiss is the first step to the bedroom..."

Hmm, she could pull that off couldn't she? Probably not. Better keep looking up some more information.

"Make sure to choose the right moment to be the one to make the first move." Kyouko nodded as she wrote, 'When you sense he's calm, receptive and relaxed, take the opportunity to show him exactly what you want to do to him.' she allowed a blush to paint her face then.

Even if it was just acting, "I still have no clue how to go about it." she whispered to the empty room.

That night flashed back in her mind. Kyouko sighed, thinking how embarrassed she had been the next morning as this was the whole reason she was here. There would be no running to him for help. The thought of him trying things out on her that he'd done with other women was enough to send her into an emotional swirl of anger and jealousy back then and even more so right now.

'_There's no way I could even hold a candle to him. Anything I come up with, I'm sure he's done many times over. I'll only end up following his lead, like always. I was barely hanging on as Setsu and now I can't even stay in character when he kisses me.'_ she slammed her book shut and hit the desk in frustration. "Think, Kyouko, think!" she repeated over and over. She had to be able to do this and do it right. She could not afford to get caught up in anything about him or his acting. Off the set was a different story, but while the camera was rolling, no way!

Kyouko closed her eyes, breathing deeply in and out, taking her search a step further and typed again. Looking at the words that appeared on the computer screen, she picked up her pen again.

"Get to know them and you'll be able to explore them using all the different techniques." She wrote each one down until her face was hot, "Do I really need to do...that?"

She wrote in her book as she kept reading, "Men love to look at beautiful women. Men are voyeurs, and they get turned on visually." Kyouko put her pen down and gave a laugh. _'No need to write this down. That much is obvious. I'm not certain I can pull this off no matter where I'm at.' _she paused then picking her pen back up._ '...but I will do everything I can to try.'_

She looked at the screen and kept reading then she found that she had to turn away._ 'I couldn't do that!' _then she turned back to the screen, "Actually, maybe I could...but only for the purpose of acting."she told herself.

She was about to click off the screen when one last thing caught her eye, '**We all have our hang-ups, but there's no point in bringing them up all the time and drawing attention to them.'** looking back to her book, '_Easier said than done.'_ she kept reading, **'He's not there to reassure you about yourself. Put yourself in his shoes: how would you feel if he was constantly beating himself up and pointing out his less-than-perfect parts to you?'**

_'That would never happen though, he's pretty much perfect, especially in front of a camera. That's why it's much easier for me to hide behind the makeup and clothes, especially when so much of my body and myself is involved._' she went back to the screen, **'The fact he's with you must prove you're what he likes, so stop being so disparaging about yourself.'** she wrote the last note down with a flourish.

"This is only for being on set." It was perfect to remember for when she was in character.

As for real life, '_It's just not going to happen. I'm most definitely not what he likes. Still knowing that, I have to find a way to let him know, so that I can deal with the rejection that much sooner. The days are ticking away and even though I already know the answer, I'll still kick myself if I never even try."_ Kyouko turned off the computer._ 'Though it is good that other people seem to have the same problem that I do. There has to be a reason it shows up in an internet search.' _Her smile was small and sad as she put her notebook away.

Kyouko put her computer away as well and went to change for the night, looking at her appearance in the mirror one last time before letting out a sigh. She turned off the lights, getting in bed and pulling up the covers as she went into a fitful sleep, worrying about being able to act exactly the way the director wanted in the morning.

* * *

Ren padded through the house, making sure to turn off the lights before he went to the refrigerator and grabbed a bottle of water, stopping to give one last look in the general direction of the guest room. He didn't let her know but he heard what she said earlier. He could feel his heart contract each time he heard those three words, "Think, Kyouko, think."

He wished he could do something to help as he made his way into bed. Knowing Kyouko, she would manage to figure things out because she always did. Saying that, these recent days had to be taking their toll on her. All he could do was offer as much support as she would allow and hope that she wouldn't misread his intentions.

Making things easier on set wouldn't help anything at all. She had to be pushed to be successful. In the two years since he'd met her she had done exactly that. Her acting skills rivaled many of the best out there, and he was included in that group. He hated to see her be so hard on herself. Facing everything head on was what seemed to work best for getting her to overcome her bumps in the road. At this point her professionalism demanded no less than that. His did also.

* * *

The hands roamed up and down her petite curves before one hand moved up as the other one stayed at her waist. Fingers curled into Kyouko's hair, then feeling a kiss on her ear, she heard a whispered voice say,

"You don't have to move. I just want to feel you and hear you."

Kyouko had a reply ready when she was pulled back against a warm wall of muscle as a hand went under her camisole and pressed against her stomach. The scent of rosewood filled her nose, as her heart pounded and she felt a twinge of excitement. She started to place the man beside her in the bed.

Kyouko gasped as she felt warm lips against her shoulder working their way slowly down her side to her stomach as she opened her eyes, trying to see in the dark as she was moved over onto her back. Goosebumps formed from the hands lightly skimming her waist and ribs along with the cool air hitting the exposed skin of her breasts and as her shirt was lifted.

Reaching out her hands to touch the ones now covering her breasts she was unable to speak against the sensations flooding her body. Kyouko arched into him as he groaned in response. She kept trying to speak but no sound came out save for soft whimpers as she felt him right at her chest. With great effort, she managed to use her hands to push him away, turning her head to the cold pillow while pulling her shirt back down. Then she heard him whisper,

"You're lovely."

Kyouko knew she was dreaming now and willed herself to wake up, then felt his mouth on her navel. His hands softly glided up and inside of her thighs, causing her to open them as his fingers made their way to the barrier of her panties and stopped. With a sigh, she realized she was filled with anticipation as she heard him,

"Do you want me to stop?"

The heat increased all over her body, especially in her face as Kyouko shook her head. In case he didn't get the message she placed her hand on top of his and moved it down. The first touch of his fingers on her made her gasp and then tremble as he pushed aside the flimsy material and moved his fingers closer. He placed two fingers inside of her and she arched at the contact as a wave of shivering spiraled through her.

He soon added his mouth, licking her up and down around his fingers before settling in at her sensitive bud, circling it before sucking it softly into his mouth. She nearly came off of the bed, her breath coming out in gasps as her body gave in to the tingles that rippled out to every nerve ending. The smell of her arousal filled the air, a low moan escaping her lips as the speed of his fingers and tongue increased.

Kyouko wasn't sure what was happening but her legs began to quiver as she started to contract around his fingers. Then he stopped, making his way back up,

"I love the taste of you." he whispered against her mouth before he bent down and began kissing her.

On a gasp her lips parted and he delved into the warm depths of her mouth, taking his time as he learned every part of it with his own. Another moan escaped her as she returned his kiss, her hand holding his hand that was now cradled against her head. Slowly, she gave and he took, sucking and nibbling before his mouth moved to her lips, circling them with his tongue before moving back inside.

Just then, Kyouko woke up with a start. It was Saturday, August third at five am according to the neon blue light of the clock. Eight days left. She still had some time but Kyouko figured she may as well get herself and breakfast ready to make it to the shoot by seven.

A blush colored her cheeks as she remembered almost all of the details of her recent dream. She just couldn't quite place the person and the voice that she heard. '_And I thought my mind couldn't get any worse. Of course this would be the time I would actually remember the most. Clearly doing my "research" when I did started this whole thing.'_

She swung her legs up and out of the bed, ignoring the evidence of her dream as she peeled her clothes off and put them down next to her bag before she hopped into the shower. Her mind was a jumble as she stood back against the cold, slate tile allowing the warm spray to cascade over her soapy skin. The one thing Kyouko was certain of: She had to make sure to separate the actual research from her dream while she worked.

* * *

The clock was approaching eight am and filming was set to begin. Now in her dressing room, Kyouko looked at herself in the mirror as the finishing touches of her makeup were being done. Closing her eyes, she tried to put the memories of that blasted dream out of her head. Then with a wave of realization, she felt she might be able to put this new experience to good use. Perhaps she could finally gain the upper hand in shooting her scenes._'I just hope I don't start with a love scene, that way I'll feel better prepared.'_

Kyouko exited the dressing room only to hear,

"Oh, and I was really hoping that you decided to drop this project by now."

She could recognize that irritating tone from anywhere. Omura Izumi. Kyouko turned, her dark aura starting as she looked the woman right in the eye and replied, "Never. My pride as an actress demands that I see everything I start to the end. Go ahead and try your worst, Omura-san."

"Don't you worry, I will make sure to do that. I don't know what such a great man sees in you anyhow. Maybe there's some other reason you got such a good role." she replied with a smirk.

"Because I work hard. Something you should try. If you spent less time trying to bring people down and more actually working on your acting talent maybe you could get somewhere." Kyouko finished as the dark aura around her began to dissipate as she started walking.

"You know, no matter how close you both might be on camera, you'll never get a man like him. He's much too remarkable to ever look at someone like you."

She effectively hid the look that crossed her face as the woman's words cut a little too deep. Why did Izumi keep bringing that up anyway? It wasn't as if Kyouko wasn't already aware of that. "I know." she said quietly as she kept going to the stage without giving the woman behind her another glance.

She walked over to the other actors as they gathered around Director Shingai since he preferred to run through the takes before they started. Kyouko groaned when she realized the first shot was the end of a love scene.

_'He just wants to see how I'll do.'_ Kyouko tried not to panic, _'I wish I could have a little more time but the job waits for no one.'_

_'Putting me to the test early, I see.'_ Ren stood silently for a moment then walked over to the set.

Five minutes later, Ren and Kyouko were in their places.

"Action camera!"

The cameras rolled as Kyouko looked into Ren's eyes, climbing on top of him and smiling seductively before she moved slowly, gently tracing a finger along his face as she spoke three words into his ear in a low voice.

He closed his eyes, delighting in the sound of her soft voice, tightening his arms around her slim form, wishing so badly that the words she had just said to him actually meant something. He wouldn't hesitate for a second to give her what she asked. To hear the sweet sounds she made as his fingers found the sensitive areas all over her body, kissing her soft lips as she whimpered and arched against him.

**_"So do you think you'd be able to do that for me, Mitsuo?"_** her voice interrupted his thoughts.

**_"I think it could be arranged."_**

**_"Thank you._**"

Kyouko was right above Ren as she moved closer to his face and in seconds her lips were on his. True to form and unknown to each other, they both went out of character immediately as she kissed him fervently. Their hands moved all over each other as if they couldn't quite decide on where to put them. She soon rested both of them in his hair, holding him to her as she sought the heat of his mouth. His hands were at the small of her back, pulling her closer as Kyouko kept trying to break away, but found that her body had a mind of its own, as it usually did lately where Ren was involved.

"AND...CUT THE CAMERAS!" the snap of the clapboard finally ended the kiss. They both looked at each other as Director Shingai ran over, grinning widely.

"Ren, Kyouko you guys were great, simply fantastic! I knew you two were good together when I saw you for the first time, but I had no idea there was so much chemistry between you. What I saw back then must have barely scratched the surface. This movie is going to do great! You guys keep up your excellent work. We'll break for a costume change and meet back on set in half an hour."

"Thank you, Director." Kyouko said breathlessly turning to him and giving him a small smile before getting up and making a mad dash for her dressing room, trying to hide the slight blush that colored her cheeks. _'That attempt failed miserably. I have to stop doing that.'_

Ren watched her take off as he tried to get a reign on his own emotions. How he wished he could get her to respond to him like that away from the cameras. He knew he was in a sad state but on the bright side, he was really looking forward to working. With that said, something had to give since he wasn't sure they could do many more lead roles like this. Ren gave a long sigh as he went back to his dressing room to get ready for the next scene.

Thirty minutes later, they were standing on a patio watching a beach scene moving in the background. Vivid purples, blues and yellows blended together around the now orange orb dipping lower in the sky. White-tipped waves rippled softly against the soft sand much like the gentlest of breezes making its way through the leaves of a palm tree. It could almost be called romantic if it weren't for all of the activity taking place behind them.

"Roll cameras." a man yelled. "Are we up to speed?"

"Not yet. There's a glitch in the digital feed."

"Get that thing together!"

Another hour passed and the thumbs up was given,

"Action background and cameras!"

Kyouko stared out over the ocean. **_"This is a beautiful view, Mitsuo. I'm very happy to be enjoying it with you."_**

_**"You're right, Miko. It really is quite the view. I'm appreciating it too."**_

Turning to him and meeting the eyes that were already looking at her. "**_But, you're not looking at the ocean,"_** she said.

He stared deeper into her eyes. **_"Why would I be? I'd rather be looking at you."_**

She sighed then, _**"I guess we'd better get back inside."**_

He nodded,"**_As much as I know you'd like to take in the scene, there's still plenty of work to do."_**

They both walked inside and over to the mats and training equipment. Getting down on the mats,

**_"Miko, lay down first, then open your legs. You have to make sure they go around my torso."_**

Kyouko did as she was asked. '_Here goes nothing._' she thought as Ren moved his body closer. Once she felt the back of her thighs against the top of his legs she knew she was in the correct position.

_**"Are you sure about this, Mitsuo?"**_

"**_Just relax Miko, and it will be fine. You have to be able to gain enough leverage to get me off of you. Remember to keep your arms completely straight and push them against my shoulders. Then push off on your foot and move me. We have to keep going until you're comfortable. Let me know when you're ready._**"

**_"I'm ready."_**

Ren moved his torso closer to Kyouko as she kept her arms straight, moving her hands on his shoulders. Then keeping her right shoulder down to the ground she pushed off from her left foot turning her hips toward him. They practiced this for twenty minutes about to go one last time before moving to the next scene. As he looked down at her, Kyouko's face suddenly twisted in pain as she gasped. Ren made a signal and the action stopped immediately.

"CUT! End scene. End of scene!"

"What is it, Kyouko?" Ren asked

"It's my ankle. I didn't hear anything, but pain started shooting through it." she replied with a grimace.

He removed her shoe and sock and examined her ankle. She flushed as the soft touch of his hand against her skin filled her with butterflies.

"It doesn't look swollen, but this is the same ankle that you broke already, so it might be best to keep you off of it for right now."

Director Shingai made his way over and agreed. "Go get it checked out. Even with our technical difficulties we got through nearly all of the scenes for today since you guys made up for it with your takes."

"No, it's fine! Really, I can finish the scene." Kyouko looked at them, her eyes pleading.

Both Ren and Director Shingai shook their heads.

"We know you can work when you're in pain very well, Kyouko but I also know how that ended last time." Director Shingai began while Ren walked off to use his phone. "Back then you could take time off after you collapsed since you were just starting out but right now we need you here. If you're fine, we'll be working tomorrow and can make up for any lost time. The film is important but it's not that important." he paused. "Like I said, go get it looked at and call me. If everything's fine we'll be back on set tomorrow. We actually got pretty far today."

"Okay then, let's go." Ren said, picking Kyouko up, "The car's already waiting outside. I'll place a call to The President on the way and someone will meet us back at home."

Kyouko wanted to protest again but the look on Ren's face stopped her, "We can't afford to lose you because you're so stubborn and believe it or not I actually like working with you. I won't let you out of my sight for the rest of the day."

"Don't be silly, Tsuruga-san." Kyouko said shyly. "You can't possibly follow me around for everything I do."

She stopped arguing although she could feel Izumi's glare boring into her. She instinctively wrapped her arms around Ren's neck and allowed herself to be carried to the waiting vehicle, hoping that he wouldn't have to take care of her too much.

_'This is going to be a long night.'_ Kyouko frowned as Ren placed her down into the car.

'_I'll do whatever I have to so that she's back to work tomorrow.'_ he got in next to her and sat down, closing the door before the car drove off.

* * *

**Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it, I wanted to set up a bit more plot while giving you some kind of kiss. **


	4. Back In Time

**Thank you so much for all of your reviews, faves and follows. I've named names at the end of the chapter.**

**I do not own anything related to Skip Beat!**

**This could possibly get a bit graphic just wanted to put a warning just in case. I'd also like to than Phyrradoxa for pointing out a glaring error on my part. It should be all fixed! By all means, let me know if it's not.**

* * *

"Tsuruga-san, I'll be alright." Kyouko said as she tried yet again to fight her way out of his hands but he held her fast. "This is so embarrassing." she finished quietly as Yashiro opened the door.

"You can take her right to the room. Dr. Tanabe will be here to take a look at you in twenty minutes." he said holding the door open.

"I'm sure it's fine. It only hurts a little bit and there's still no swelling."

Ren placed her down on the table and looked at it again. "It's good that you're not feeling anything, but the bones in the ankle are so small, it's better to be safe."

She sighed as she lay back on the table. She couldn't believe he was carrying her...again.

Dr. Tanabe was a handsome older gentleman. His salt and pepper hair contrasted nicely with his hazel eyes and the white coat he had on. He arranged for X-rays immediately. After ten minutes the results came back with nothing being broken. Everyone gave a collective sigh of relief. Once that was done, he took her ankle and moved it through different ranges of motion. When he turned her foot inward, the pain was the greatest as she hissed slightly, trying to stay strong in front of all the men in the room.

The doctor frowned as he repeated the movement and then nodded, "It looks like you have a grade one ankle sprain. It won't need a boot or cast but since this is the same ankle that you broke I want you to stay off of it."

She frowned, "But I have to work tomorrow."

"That should be fine, but it depends on how it feels. You know your limit. Tonight you need to keep it up and use ice. Keep the ice on for 15-20 minutes and then off for the same amount of time. Do that for two to three hours and that should help. From there you can do some massage. That will allow your circulation to increase which brings more blood to the area and helps with healing. When you are able I suggest some light stretches as well."

"I can't be on it at all?" Kyouko asked, "What about when I have to...you know."

"If you want to be able to work tomorrow I strongly advise against it. You can figure out ways to work around it and I'm sure one of these generous men would be able to help you out." he said with a warm smile.

"How long can she work for tomorrow?" Yashiro asked.

"I would suggest no longer than four to five hours depending on the nature of your work. Also I'll have my nurse provide you with a few ace bandages. You'll want to wrap the ankle up so that it's more sturdy."

They nodded as he left the room with a final, "Thank You."

Kyouko sighed, "I need to make sure the bathroom is close to where I'm sleeping." she said to herself. Kyouko didn't want to think about the only place where that could be at his house. It certainly wasn't the guest room.

Ren spoke up then, "Maybe now I can interest you in sleeping with me in my bed. The President would be severely angry with me if you hurt yourself more. I'll give you your privacy when you need it, but I told you I'm not letting you go anywhere without me close by.

Kyouko frowned for a bit before she nodded slightly as she let out a sigh, realizing he was right. "Still I don't want to impose on you."

"You're not imposing at all. As you know, it's more than big enough for the two of us so we'll be as far apart or as close as you want. If it makes you feel better, I can put pillows between us, in case you're worried you won't be able to keep your hands off of me." Yashiro gave Ren a look as a slight blush made its way to Kyouko's face,

"You're always teasing me, Tsuruga-san. It's not that. Besides maybe I want to put my hands on you." she replied, trying her hardest not to blush or let the idea stick in her head for too long. _'Now you can see how it feels.'_

Yashiro held back a laugh at the look of surprise on Ren's face. Shaking it off Ren walked over to her.

"Then it's settled. Don't worry too much, it's just for one night." he said and with that he was back to carrying Kyouko to the car.

They just had to drop Yashiro off and they'd be on their way. The pillows proabably weren't a bad idea. While Ren was giving Kyouko a hard time, he'd have to remember the same thing when it came to himself. It was becoming harder for him each time he saw her and he was probably playing with fire but the doctor's orders were clear. No weight at all on it if she wanted to be ready to return to work.

* * *

An hour later, they had ice and ace bandages as well as some take-out for dinner. Kyouko held the key to the condo so that Ren wouldn't have to move her to let them in. Ren placed her on the couch as he got the food out and brought it over to the living room. Kyouko's face brightened as he brought over two steaming bowls of ramen.

"Thank you. It's not a steak with fried egg but it comes pretty close." she said as she raised some noodles to her lips with the chopsticks.

Ren did his best not to stare. Did she always eat noodles that way? He barely kept his desire in check as he watched her pucker her lips, slowly sucking the noodles in between her lips. Ren quickly went back to his food as she spoke,

"So are we ready for the new co-stars arriving next week?"

Ren frowned. He still couldn't believe Kijima had gotten the role he did in this movie. "Just watch out for Kijima. If you think I'm a playboy, just wait until you see him at work. " Kijima was only playing the part of a divorce attorney. Still, Ren hoped he wouldn't have to step in, but of course he would if he saw it was necessary.

"I should say the same about Hayashi-san. I wouldn't look at you quite the same if she got her claws into you." Kyouko said with finality as she ate some more noodles.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were jealous. Don't worry I only have eyes for you, Miko." Ren smiled as he teased Kyouko.

She blushed, "No, it's not like that at all." she replied quickly. "As your kouhai I just want to prevent you from getting...distracted during filming."

'_Distracted? That's an interesting way of phrasing it, especially since the one doing most of the distracting is you.' _he reached for his drink,"How's your ankle feeling so far?"

"Not bad, it still hurts a little."

"Okay, I'll need to get the ice off in a little while. I've even got something that works great! It does wonders for me when I push myself too hard doing my stunts."

Kyouko smiled, "That sounds good."

* * *

Two hours later the sound of running water at the sink was Ren's cue. He opened the door as Kyouko finished drying her hands. Ren was in action quickly, swooping her up so fast that she had no choice but to wrap her arms around him. He brought her back into his room and slowly placed her down in the bed, quickly retrieving a pillow to prop her foot up on.

"Do you want more ice."

"Honestly, no. I'm tired of feeling the cold and I don't want to make a mess with the melting ice."

Ren nodded, and reached into his nightstand next to her. Kyouko pretended she didn't see the condoms as she tried to discreetly peek at what he was getting. Finally he pulled out a small golden jar.

"What's this? she asked as he pulled off the cap and the strong odor filled her nose.

"Tiger Balm. It's great for muscle aches, and also sprains and strains. I figured I'd use some around your ankle and it would feel better."

"What do you mean? I can do it." Kyouko said reaching for the jar.

"The doctor said to massage it after two to three hours and that's exactly what I intend to do." Ren replied smoothly, moving down to sit on the bed next to her propped up ankle.

"Fine." Kyouko grumbled as he stuck a finger in the substance and slowly spread it across her skin.

With strong hands and sure strokes, Ren began pressing and rubbing the delicate muscles on the bottom of her foot. Kyouko's eyes went wide as she felt the pressure loosen. She also felt a rush of heat start from her stomach and move lower. She was unable to hold back a sigh as his fingers pressed into her skin and moved slowly all around her ankle before moving to the top of her foot. She felt no pain as he continued with just the right amount of pressure.

"That feels nice." she said with another sigh as she sank back into the cool pillows. Anything to keep her rising body temperature down.

Ren's eyes darkened as he saw her reactions under his hands. '_If she likes this just wait until I get to touch the rest of her.' _He held back a chuckle as he stopped his movements. "Is the pressure still good or do you want me to go deeper."

Kyouko opened her eyes, realizing that her thoughts had wandered again. She was curious to know how his hands would feel on other parts of her body. "Just a little bit deeper." she said with a shaky smile, "That is if it's not too much trouble." she added quickly.

"No trouble at all. I'll do whatever I can to make you feel better." he replied as he continued.

Once he finished with her ankle, he rubbed from the top of her foot up to her calf, stopping just below the knee, slowly sinking his fingers into the muscles easing the tightness away. Kyouko had a hard time keeping herself under control, barely able to contain the small sighs that escaped from her mouth. When he moved over to her other foot, she stopped him.

"It's okay."she said breathlessly, "You've really helped me out enough. You don't have to do anymore."

"I want to make sure to do the same thing to both sides. If one side is tighter than the other, you could get injured. I learned that from the physical therapist I had to see when I got hurt doing my very first stunt."

Kyouko groaned, "If that's what needs to be done, I guess I can't argue." she gasped this time as his warm, strong hands went back to work on her already heated skin.

Fifteen minutes later, he was finished. Kyouko slowly opened her eyes smiling back at him, "Thank you. That was very good."

Ren met her eyes, "I'm sure it had more to do with what I was using than with me." he replied.

'_Oh no. I am certain it had nothing to do with what you were using at all.'_ Kyouko thought, closing her eyes again. '_I'm in trouble if he gets his hands on any other part of me.'_

An hour later, Kyouko could barely keep her eyes open.

"Are you comfortable?"

She nodded, settling back into the bed as she replied, "Thank you for taking care of me tonight, Tsuruga-san. My ankle feels much better."

"I enjoyed doing it." he replied giving her a smile, "Though the real test will be tomorrow. We have to do more self defense moves."

Kyouko kept trying to forget because in the past couple of days the thought of being underneath him was something she was actually looking forward to. Maybe that's why this injury happened. It was all because of her being impure and thinking these exact thoughts.

"Good night, Tsuruga-san."

"Good night, Mogami-san." he reached over and turned off the light.

* * *

Kyouko opened her eyes and thought that she had awakened. But it wasn't dark like it should be. Instead there was light along with blurriness around the edges of her vision.

"Where am I?" Kyouko asked looking around.

"You're dreaming." came the voice. All she could tell was that a man was speaking to her.

She looked around but couldn't see anyone.

She heard a slight laugh, "You're not able to see me just yet. When the time comes you will."

"What's going on?"

"Since I'm here it appears you are a dreamer. You also have a pretty active imagination."

"Maybe." Kyouko replied, a bit embarrassed at being read so easily.

"I have much to show you in a limited amount of time. I gather that you tend to get lost in your mind sometimes. Do people usually have to get your attention? Or do you find you've missed what someone has said to you because you are off thinking your own thoughts?"

Kyouko said nothing as he spoke up again. "Well we can't afford to have you getting sidetracked. So instead of being in your imagination I am here in your dreams. It makes things easier that way."

"I still don't understand." Kyouko replied with a frown.

"Don't worry, everything will become more clear as we go on. I'll just say that this has to do with the person who gave you the newspaper."

"The person who gave me the paper? But I've never seen that man before in my life."

"That's because you saw him as he really is. There's a reason it was you. It's the same reason that I'm here right now. One thing couldn't happen without the other. You must be a very important person to him."

Kyouko looked around some more while he continued,

"He was given a chance to go back and change how things turned out. The only catch was that he could only do one thing to leave behind some kind of a clue. He could have come into your dreams but he must have known that something more concrete would be needed when it came to you so that people were more likely to believe you." the voice paused, "Now it makes sense. I can see why he's so drawn to you. You represent everything he never really had a chance to have. He was already so mature."

Kyouko had no clue what this man was going on about. The only man that was prominent in her life had his moments of maturity. But she definitely wouldn't use that word to describe him. In fact he was mostly more childish than anything. It didn't matter though. Her feelings for him were still very much there.

"Who is this person?"

"If you don't figure it out by the time this is over, you'll know for sure next time. Though you're not meant to know his true identity until the very end. I'll be coming to you two more times after this. Like I said we don't have too much time. I'll start off by showing you the boy that I met."

The scene changed to a young boy who looked to be around ten or eleven. He had blond hair and green eyes. He was very good-looking though not so much at this moment. His lip was busted, he had a scrape under his right cheek and a black eye. Kyouko winced at the purple and black bruising under his left eye.

"What happened?" Kyouko asked quietly.

"He was picked on a lot and this is the result of one of those times. This is when he made his way into my life." the voice finished.

Kyouko felt really sad for the child before her eyes, she could already feel tears burning behind her eyes. Kyouko had been bullied in school but it didn't come close to this extreme. "How did you help him?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of the image in front of her.

"I gave him a chicken."

The scene changed before her as she saw a man wearing a with a patterned vest that matched his belt wearing black jeans and a vest handing a large brown chicken to a young boy. Looking at him now, he reminded her of "Corn" with how tall he was, though she kept that to herself.

"A chicken?" '_What was the point of that?'_

He laughed then, "My goal was to get him to work on keeping his darker side in check. Which is why I told him he needed to pick his battles. There was no reason to look for a fight. If they came to him though he needed to be prepared and also be able to defend himself. I told him that the chicken represented the weakness that he had. I told him not to raise it or name it. Instead he needed to kill it and eat it because it would get rid of his weakness. He was getting beaten up because he wasn't fighting back."

"Did it work?" she asked as she watched the chicken being held upside down.

"He said that his father and martial arts teacher told him not to use his fighting techniques to hurt others. I wanted him to see that as long as he kept everything bottled inside him that it would be too much and only make him that much more angry. And when that happened the darkness and anger would rule him."

Kyouko nodded, "It sounds like he wasn't much for listening. He would do it his own way and deal with the consequences." She thought back to the time when Ren became sick. _'It seems these two were the same in that regard.'_

"That boy was always quite stubborn. He went out and bought me some nuggets but kept the chicken, he even gave it a name. I told him the whole point was to conquer the weakness. That in turn would curb the darkness as well. By eating the chicken it would become a part of him and give him strength to defeat whatever stood in his way. We ended up doing something else instead but that is another story for another day. In the end I'm not sure we successfully conquered anything. Still someone came along to change that. This person did more for him than I could ever do."

"What did they go after him for?"

"Kids can be cruel. It never takes much. It could be because of what he looked like and because of who his parents were. There was a little bit more to it than that but if he wants to go into it, he'll tell you when he feels the time is right. He was better than them and they knew it. Rather than accept that fact they chose to bring him down however they could. It's really too bad. But at least he still has a chance to conquer it."

The scene fizzled out and there was only darkness.

"Here we get to the conclusion. Prepare yourself. It will be hard to see but it's necessary." the voice said quietly.

Now it looked like an early afternoon. Kyouko looked down and she was out in the middle of the street. She walked over to the sidewalk where she saw a man and teenager. The man was yelling.

"He's already unconscious! Are you trying to kill him?"

Just then a man in a dark gray suit started running down the block, knocking over a woman in the process.

"Tina!"

The teenager took off running after the man.

"Wait! Stop!" the older man took off after him.

When Kyouko saw the lights it was too late and she was unable to do anything to help. All she could do was watch in shocked horror and silence as the car came swerving right at her. Kyouko was now on the sidewalk and watched as the car sped down the road and hit the man as he was running after the teen.

Kyouko could see now that the man had dark hair. He wore a white shirt with two necklaces on and some light blue jeans. She winced and gasped, tears pouring down her face as she saw his head hit the windshield leaving it completely covered in cracks as the man's body went flipping over nearly three meters in the air.

Blood was already pouring out from all over. A scream could be heard as he landed on his back on the ground, a pool of blood forming underneath him.

Though it kept drifting in and out all that could Kyouko heard was, "Don't die, please don't die."

Then just like that everything went black. Kyouko covered her eyes as she cried. Meanwhile, out of the darkness, a man was walking toward her. She looked up when she felt the hand on her shoulder. Looking at him, he had on a white shirt and light blue jeans and was about 180 centimeters and on the skinny side. His hair was dark and he wore two necklaces. Kyouko realized he was the same man she had just witnessed being hit, the clothes that he had on were no different from the ones she had just seen, except they were no longer covered in blood.

"Can I ask who you are now?" Kyouko asked in a hushed voice, her eyes still brimming with tears.

He nodded, "I'm Rick. I apologize but it's important that you understand what he deals with most days."

"I'm so sorry that you had to die this way." Kyouko replied her eyes still brimming with tears.

He nodded, "I'm sorry too since it meant I couldn't be there for him or Tina anymore. I died almost instantly. I remember feeling myself going cold as the blood left my body but I don't remember feeling any pain. Just like that I was looking down at the scene below me, though I couldn't quite see everything going on. Not until recently did everything become a bit more clear but this is all we have time for right now. I will be back."

"When?" she yelled out to the retreating figure.

"You'll know when you see me again." Rick replied.

With that, her vision faded into darkness.

"Mogami-san! Mogami-san, wake up!"

Kyouko opened her eyes slowly. "Where am I?" she asked, her mind still trying to process the images she had just seen.

"You're in my room. You were having a bad dream and I wanted to wake you up." came Ren's voice.

Kyouko sat back and sighed as Ren reached for the light. She looked over at his worried face.

"I've been trying to wake you for the past five minutes but you wouldn't respond."

'_I doubt that was part of the plan.'_ she thought with a shudder. '_He said he would be back two more times. I'm curious to know about the boy but I don't want to go through that again to find out.'_ She looked up and was startled by Ren's eyes looking right at her.

"I'm okay." she managed, giving Ren a small smile to reassure him.

"I can leave the light on."

"No. That's not necessary." she closed her eyes and burrowed further into the covers but before long she was trembling.

Ren looked back over at her. "Are you sure you're okay."

"I guess I was more affected than I thought." she replied quietly.

He didn't ask anymore questions and Kyouko put up no resistance as Ren moved over and pulled her close to him. Being wrapped in his warm, strong arms made her tremors start to subside as he gently stroked her hair. The love she felt for him came flooding into her mind immediately. That thought along with having him near finally calmed her completely and within minutes she had fallen back asleep. Ren peeked at the clock then, it was now four a.m. He looked at the sleeping figure in his arms once more.

"I'll take care of you however you need me to, my love." he said before reaching over to turn the light off.

He got them both in a comfortable position, then placing a light kiss on her temple, drifted off to sleep.

* * *

**3 meters= around ten feet. That's how it looked in the manga but I could be wrong**

**180 cm= around 5'11"**

Thanks for reading. It was about time for me to work in more of the supernatural aspects. I also thought it would be interesting for Kyouko to learn about Ren's true identity in a different way. That way she would be better able to reassure him since she will have seen everything for herself. We had a dream of Kuon's past. The next dream will be in a couple more chapters. If you're interested in what I looked up to come up with this idea feel free to PM me and I can give you the link. I do like to make sure what I write is accurate.

**And now for the usual...**

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	5. Closer

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**I do not own Skip Beat! or any of its characters.**

_**Movie lines are italicized and bolded.**_

* * *

Kyouko opened her eyes, then sighed as she remembered the details of her dream, wondering to herself who the poor person was that had to relive that dreadful scene over and over again in their memory. She still remembered everything so vividly: how her blood ran cold at the sight of the windshield and the body laying lifeless in the street. Another chill went through her. Instinctively, Ren's arms tightened around her waist.

It wasn't quite time to get up but Kyouko didn't want to move so she remained there, not giving a thought to the fact that she was actually laying in a bed on top of a man. Perhaps a little of Setsu had rubbed off on her after all. She rested her chin on Ren's chest looking up at his sleeping face before she looked over and checked the clock. It was six a.m on Sunday. August fourth had arrived.

One week.

Putting her head back down on his chest, the sounds of his heartbeat and deep, even breathing calmed her and she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

* * *

Ren woke up to Kyouko sleeping on top of him. How that happened he couldn't figure out. On second thought, maybe he could. At least she had managed to get a little sleep. He wished he knew what had plagued her the evening before and that he could do something more to help. He was willing to do anything for the woman he loved.

He was just happy that she had actually let him be so close to her without a major protest. Even though she said she was okay he sensed that she was hiding the truth right away. He never wanted to push her into saying anything. From the first day he met her, she always wanted to be strong and take care of everyone else instead of allowing herself to rely on someone. This was actually pretty understandable considering the childhood she had. Still, a part of Ren hoped that she could one day learn to depend on at least one person, that one person being him.

He didn't want to remove his arms from around her but he had to get ready. With a frown, he moved Kyouko over and made his way to the bathroom, turning on the shower. Since it was Sunday, there wasn't much scheduled. All he had was the movie shoot filming. He was looking forward to it. Not only did he get to finish a long running scene but he even had time to watch Kyouko in action along with one other thing. He hoped that she would finally show her jealous co-star who was boss during their scenes together. Then everyone would be able to see what he saw whenever she acted.

By the time he got out of the shower he looked over to the bed and found that it was empty. Sliding on a blue casual shirt and some khakis he went out into the living room, taking a chair as he heard water running in his guest room shower.

'_I guess that means her ankle's doing good.'_ he thought as he took a look through his phone.

Ten minutes later she came out wearing dark, slightly flared jeans along with a green shirt.

"Good morning, Tsuruga-san." Kyouko said, a light blush painting her cheeks, "I'm sorry about last night, but thank you for being there for me."

Ren nodded, with a smile and replied, "It was no trouble at all, Mogami-san."

She went to the kitchen to cook a quick breakfast. Throwing a couple of pieces of toast in the toaster she opened up the refrigerator and pulled out leftover grilled fish and some rice. Fifteen minutes later they were sitting down to breakfast.

"How's your ankle feeling this morning?" Ren asked as he took a sip from his cup.

"It feels really good!" Kyouko replied excitedly. "I'm looking forward to getting back to work."

He nodded, "Don't forget to grab an ace bandage. We'll have to get it wrapped up once we're on set."

She nodded polishing off the last of her fish and checking the clock. They had about 20 minutes which was good, she was ready to start the day. Kyouko jumped up to start picking up dishes. She had her bowl and a plate and went to reach for Ren's bowl at the same time he reached for his glass. Their fingers brushed lightly, both of them feeling a jolt with such a small amount of contact.

Kyouko tried to keep her face under control as she promptly grabbed the bowl, "Sorry, I was trying to get all the dishes." she said in explanation as she went to the kitchen to place them in the sink.

Ten minutes later, everything was washed and they were almost ready to go, enjoying a comfortable silence. Kyouko found herself focusing on his face, her eyes never leaving his mouth as he would pick up his cup and drink. Reading a mail from his phone, Ren was completely oblivious to the audience that he had.

After a few minutes, Kyouko willed herself to focus on something else and got busy looking in the refrigerator to make sure that all of the ingredients for dinner were there.

The knock on the door signaled that the car was outside and ready to take them to the set. Without a word, they both followed the driver and were soon at their destination.

* * *

**_"You know that I always want to be there for you when I can." _**Izumi stated flatly.

**_"Thanks, Aika. That really means a lot to me. You have been the only real friend who has stayed by my side through all of this. For that I am really grateful." _**Kyouko replied looking at the woman with a smile that went all the way to her eyes.

Izumi's eyes narrowed,**_"It's no problem at all, Miko. I'm happy to help." _**she finished.

Kyouko kept her eyes locked onto Izumi's_.__** "I realize that now." **_Kyouko voiced quietly in a somewhat sad tone.

"And...cut!"

Kyouko closed her eyes and took a breath, giving Izumi a small smile before she got up. Director Shingai was there to meet her,

"Perfect! You're expressions and your tone of voice! That was wonderful, Kyouko."

"Thank you so much Director. I am truly glad that you liked it." Kyouko replied.

Turning, the man's eyes narrowed, a frown crossing his face as he looked at one Omura Izumi.

"Izumi, I'm not sure what your problem is but you're putting us behind. All you had to say was a couple of lines and couldn't even do that right. When I hired you for this job I thought you were a professional but my mistake is becoming more and more clear with each take." Shingai stated. "Take half an hour and we'll start over. We have a longer scene so hopefully you can regain your composure and do the job that you're getting paid to do." he finished, not even looking at her before walking off.

Izumi fumed as she stomped back to her dressing room. "That stupid girl! How dare she make me look like an idiot." she screamed to the room.

Izumi grabbed her cell phone and called her mother. The phone went to voicemail so she left a message before throwing the phone on the vanity in frustration.

_'I hate that girl, I hate her!'_ she thought bitterly as she tried to find a way to control her swirling thoughts.

* * *

Over in Kyouko's dressing room, the door stood open while Ren and Kyouko were on the couch talking about the day of filming. Best not to have people thinking the wrong idea, even if he wanted nothing more than to be invited inside on a regular basis. Not that there would be much time to do much of anything. Still, sometimes maybe they could...

Ren shook his head, trying to clear out such thoughts as he watched Kyouko lay her head back on the couch. She had slept but most of her night had been tied up so she was still understandably a bit tired.

"Are you doing okay?" Ren asked her.

Kyouko sat up and looked over. "Yes I'm good, just trying to relax a little I suppose."

"Do you want me to go?" he asked hoping the answer would be no.

"No, not at all." Kyouko replied quickly. Almost too quickly. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make you think I didn't want you around." she stated, starting to get up and go into a full dogeza, but Ren put a hand on her arm, motioning for her to stay seated.

"It's fine. You don't have to apologize." he replied and then continued, "It looks like you've got her on the ropes." Ren stated. '_Serves her right. I knew I'd enjoy today.' _"I'm proud of you for remaining professional. I know she didn't make it easy." Ren remarked bitterly, not even wanting to use the woman's name.

Kyouko looked at him, the look on his face stirring up a sense of warmth deep inside of her as she blushed slightly and graciously accepted his praise. She thought back to a time when she had to work so hard just to get him to acknowledge her. Thankfully, now it seemed those days were far behind them now.

"It's nothing I haven't handled before. I actually feel a little bad for her. I expected more of a challenge. At least now we can get on with filming. I hope we can anyway. This might make things even worse."

Ren shook his head. "Not likely. If she's any kind of an actress she'll grow up a little and work harder. Shingai is the type of director who has no problem replacing someone at anytime if they aren't professional. There are any number of actors and actresses who would jump at the chance to be in one of his films. So he'd have no problem finding someone to replace her and make up for the lost time."

Kyouko nodded, frowning slightly as she looked over at the clock. "Did you manage to get some lunch?"

"Yes, though I rather enjoy your cooking better." he stated looking at her.

"Good, because tonight I'm going to make you something new. It's not onigiri but I'm sure you'll like it."

"I can't wait. We also have to finish that final scene so we'll have to go back in the gym."

"Right after dinner?" Kyouko asked. She still hadn't quite recovered her bearings from the last time.

"We'll wait a couple of hours. We're not running or anything so it should be fine."

"Okay. The dinner is pretty light anyway. So that should be alright."

"Looks like it's almost time to get going." Ren said.

"Let's hope we can get through this quickly." Kyouko replied.

She didn't want to admit it but she was looking forward to the scenes that she and Ren would be doing together. If for no other reason than that one of them involved kissing. Kyouko closed her eyes and groaned. She couldn't believe she had thought such a thing. This was going to be another long day and it had nothing to do with the fact that she was tired.

* * *

One p.m. had arrived and that wrapped up shooting for the day. Ren and Kyouko waited by the door for the car to arrive.

"Do you have anything else today?"

"I have rehearsal today. We have to do a burlesque number in the anniversary show. I don't know why you would want to but you're welcome to come watch."

"You know it's no problem Mogami-san. You also know that I hate when you put yourself down."

Her face flushed slightly, "I'm sorry but I actually didn't mean it that way. I just figured you had better things to do than watch a LoveMe rehearsal. Believe it or not, this is helping me. I wasn't too sure about it at first but then Yamane-san said any woman with any type of body could do it so I warmed up to the idea."

"I see." Ren replied. "Actually my schedule is pretty light. All I had was the filming so I'd like to come see you." Ren replied,_ 'The better to see if President has something planned plus that would be easier on the driver._' he continued, "I would just sit around at home and do nothing." he finished. '_And think about you and miss you.'_

"Okay then. I guess we're off to the dance studio then." Kyouko remarked as the car pulled up.

An hour later, Kyouko was in the dressing room with her friends.

"I've missed you guys so much!" Kyouko cried out giving each of them a hug, the one she gave Kanae was closer to the scale of being bone crushing.

"Mou, Kyouko I won't be able to rehearse if I can't move!" Mouko said, jumping out of her grasp.

"I'm sorry, Mouko. It's just that I haven't seen you guys in so long."

"It's only been three days." Kanae stated matter-of-factly.

"So how has it been living with Japan's number one bachelor and actor?"

Kyouko's blush gave her away.

"Kyouko!" Kanae and Chiori exclaimed in unison,

"Don't tell me, that you guys have..."

"No, no, nothing like that." Kyouko declared quickly. "It's just that my thoughts have taken a turn. I had a dream the other night about being touched and I can't figure out why. Today it's been really bad. I can't keep my eyes off of him."

"It's probably because you've acknowledged how you feel about your esteemed sempai." Chiori said as Kanae nodded.

"So have you told him?" her raven-haired friend asked.

"No. I've just been waiting for the right time." she responded, "What?" she asked as Kanae rolled her eyes.

"Mou! There's never going to be a right time with you. Or him for that matter." Kanae shook her head. "You guys will just keep avoiding the subject and nothing will ever happen."

"That's not true. I said I would tell him before..." she paused, "I still have one week."

"You think so?" Chiori asked.

Kyouko nodded even though she wasn't quite convinced. On the one hand she remembered the high school girl he was in love with. Still, he had also said he didn't deserve to be happy and would always find a reason not to pursue her. So maybe that meant she still had a chance. Or maybe it didn't. That was the one thing that kept holding her back.

She wanted to say something but being rejected would mean that nothing would ever happen between them. That left the door open for anyone else. Anyone except her. Maybe it was better to stay unaware, she didn't have to find out the truth. The thought alone was already causing her eyes to burn with unshed tears. At least right now she could enjoy being around him and know that he was only looking at and paying attention to her.

"Kyouko, hurry up and finish changing!" Kanae's voice broke into her thoughts.

She turned around so Kanae could finish closing up her corset and followed her friends out to the main dance room. Kyouko blushed in embarrassment when she realized what she would be wearing in front of Ren. She wasn't quite sure of the President's reasoning but he wanted to do something that would make the show stand out while helping them in the process. Since burlesque dancing was gaining in popularity in Tokyo, the young women of LME's LoveMe section would be performing a number with various other dancers in the city.

Each of them was hoping to be lost in the crowd but that wasn't the case. They were to perform for a little over three minutes with just the three of them, then the rest of the dancers would go onstage. Grabbing a sturdy, wooden chair they took their places. Kyouko was in the front since she was LoveMe's number one, with Kanae behind her diagonally to her left and Chiori in the same position on her right.

They stood and waited for their instructor to arrive. Yamane Ayaka was great at what she did if not a little scattered at times. This caused her to forget something pretty much all the time and she would end up late because she had to figure out where she left it and then go to retrieve it. Kyouko flashed Ren a quick smile as she waited. He gave a little wave back while Chiori and Kanae shook their heads. Anyone could see in their faces how they felt about each other. Now they just needed to see it.

* * *

Ren shifted uncomfortably in his seat. '_What does this have to do with love or the anniversary show?'_ he thought as his demeanor changed. She wasn't naked but this was an outfit he'd rather be seeing in private and not on a nationally televised broadcast for all of Japan to view.

They each had on a corset with a super short tutu at the bottom. Kyouko's outfit was red while Chiori's and Kanae's were black. They were each wearing two and a half inch shiny heels along with gloves that matched the color of their outfits. All Ren could look at were Kyouko's long shapely legs and the skin and slight bit of cleavage exposed above where the corset ended. Once he saw that the back was nothing but a long velcro strip, his mind went south immediately.

He imagined she would be sitting on the edge of that chair as he spread her legs and used his mouth to show her exactly what he was capable of to pleasure her. Once he'd lapped her clean, he would be in the chair, pulling her down on top of him. Her hands could only grip him or the chair as he grasped her hips and lifted her up and down until one or both of them were shouting and breathless.

He tried to get the thought out of his head again but was having trouble. The door opened and closed loudly behind the instructor as she entered which finally did the trick, bringing him back to reality.

"I'll definitely be calling the President later." he said to himself as he turned his attention back to the middle of the floor.

"Okay ladies, I hope you've been practicing. We only have five days left. I just want you to go over your five minute routine until you've got it down and then we'll spend some time on the number that you'll be doing with the other dancers."

They all nodded as they turned the chairs backwards and stood behind them. The music started with the sounds of Carly Simon's "Nobody Does It Better." Together, holding on to the chair, they lifted their right legs in the air before placing them on the right side of the chair repeating the same thing with the left, wrapping both legs around it as they sat down.

Getting up they pushed the chairs down, taking a step back, then shaking their hips as they moved to the left. Lifting their arms they ran their hands over their head, throwing it back as they pushed their chests out before bending down to the ground.

Next they reached for their gloves, removing one finger at a time form their left hand, then pulled the glove off and languidly tossed it aside repeating the same process with their other hand walking forward slowly while swaying their hips.

Next came the shimmy. Putting their hands on their hips as they shook them side to side. Next moving their hands up slowly along their stomachs, extending their arms before bringing them back in and moving their shoulders back and forth, shaking their breasts in time to the song as they gave a wink and a smile.

After that they each had a different strut that they used to go forward some more. Then they turned to the right, pumping their hips as they ran their hands up their leg and then turned to the left, pumping their hips again, this time lifting their arms up over their head, pushing out their behinds as well as their chests before moving down to the ground. They stayed there for a few seconds and then traced their bodies with their hands starting from their feet and ending at the sides of their breasts.

Finally, they took a sensual step backward to move away from their "audience", putting one foot behind the other, swinging their hips around to the back circling to the same side they stepped back with as their eyes lowered.

"Okay! Well done, ladies. We'll do that a few more times and then go over the dance.

Ren could only sit there with his mouth hanging open, trying to get the image of Kyouko out of his mind. The cleavage, the way she looked as she ran her hands along her body, it wasn't working. All he could imagine was her doing the same thing without the added hassle of clothing. Adjusting himself, he got up and went outside dialing Lory on the phone.

"What is it Ren?" Lory answered after he picked it up on the first ring.

"I have just watched the little number that you have them doing at the anniversary show. I don't mean to be rude but what are you thinking, President? You can't have them doing that on national television."

Laughter resounded from the other end."Ah, a little jealousy I see. You don't need to worry. I wanted to end the show with a bang. It's not like they're taking off any clothes."

"That's good since they barely have any on to begin with."

"Don't be silly, Ren. This is still Japan, they're mostly covered. I may have put them in the LoveMe section for different reasons but the main one is that they each lack confidence in some area of their life. I thought this would help them feel better about themselves and what they could accomplish. I was mainly thinking of Mogami-kun, as her self-esteem and confidence is at an all time low. Still they all can learn something from this experience that will help them grow as people and that..." Lory paused, "will also help them as actresses."

Ren sighed through the phone. Kyouko had said the same thing earlier. "I guess I should know better than to question what you decide to do at your company." Ren remarked with an air of resignation.

"Don't sound so down Ren. I trust you enjoyed the show, didn't you?"

Ren closed his eyes which didn't help as the image of Kyouko flashed through his mind, "Bye, President." he said not waiting for a response as he hung up.

* * *

Kyouko put the finishing touches on the plate as she walked it over. The clock read six p.m. exactly.

"Here we go. Pork Gyoza and Soba Noodle soup. It's not what I usually make but I think you'll still like it since it's usually eaten for lunch."

"This looks delicious." Ren stated and meant it. It didn't matter what she made it was always perfectly cooked and seasoned just right.

"Thank you." Kyouko responded as she took her place. "So how long will we be working tonight?"

"Since we're only working on one thing, I imagine we'll be in there for about an hour."

"Great. I'll follow your lead as always." Kyouko said, taking a sip of tea.

Two hours later, dinner was done and the dishes were clean. It was back to the gym. They were set to start filming the scene in three more days, and Kyouko needed to make sure she could carry it out without falling on top of her sempai again.

Kyouko stayed at her spot against the wall while Ren walked off to grab some more water. Try as she might Kyouko could not avert her eyes from his mouth as he brought the bottle to his lips. Capping the beverage, he came over to the wall.

"Are you ready, Mogami-san?"

Kyouko was still lost in her head, trying to get the image of him in his current outfit out of her mind. It wasn't working in the slightest, so she started paying attention to his face instead. Another wrong move. All she could think about was the way his lips felt on hers when they were shooting their scenes. Willing her mind to go elsewhere, she turned away from him for a second. '_Maybe that will be enough time for me to regain control of my improper thoughts.' _What was the problem today?

"Mogami-san."

No such luck. As soon as she heard his voice, she turned to face him. She got ready to open her mouth to reply but her mouth went dry and nothing came out. '_What in the world is wrong with me? Say something!'_

"Mogami-san, is something the matter?"

He stood mere millimeters away from her now. Being so close to him there was only one thought echoing in her head, '_I wish you would kiss me,_ _Tsuruga-san.'_

Ren barely hid his look of surprise before he asked, "What did you just say?"

Kyouko panicked. Had she said that out loud? She swallowed the lump that was now in her throat before responding in a shaky voice,

"Um, actually what I meant was..."

"What?" Ren questioned again, moving in even closer to her, placing his arms against the wall on either side of her head.

Here she was, Ren's face a breath away from hers with his forearms caging her in. Kyouko had envisioned this scenario before, in pretty much this exact spot. She was faring no better now that it was actually happening. Her eyes dropped slightly as she focused on his lips. The action was not lost on him as she felt the soft caress of his fingers against the sensitive skin below her ear.

Kyouko was unable to hide the shiver that went through her at his touch. Hearing no argument from her Ren continued, tracing a finger from her ear down along her jawline before finally settling his thumb on her bottom lip. Feeling the slightly rough skin on her smooth lip now sent heat rippling like an intense wave through her body. Unconsciously, Kyouko reached her hands up to wrap them around the one he had currently resting against her chin.

'_Why did I do that_?' she thought as she quickly moved her hands back down. Her body had betrayed her yet again.

He moved a hand around to the back of her neck, lightly massaging the area before moving it up, his fingers tangling in her hair. Kyouko instinctively leaned into him, her breath caught and her heart beat furiously as she closed her eyes. No matter how she tried to rationalize it, she wanted him to kiss her, longed for it with every fiber of her being.

Ren could hardly believe it. He was touching her and she showed no fear or made a move to run away. If he didn't know better her actions showed that she wanted him to keep going. He watched her eyes close as those delectable lips of hers parted ever so slightly. There was no misreading that. Still he wanted to make sure.

"Mogami-san. Look at me."

Kyouko opened her eyes. The look Ren saw in them was all the confirmation he needed.

Moving in close his lips grazed along the left side of her jaw with agonizing slowness. His warm breath on her increased the fluttering deep in her stomach. He tilted her chin up before his mouth settled next to her ear,

"Who am I to deny you what you want, Mogami-san? " Ren asked in a soft voice before he moved back over, his eyes looking right into her golden ones as he brought his mouth down, taking hers in an electrifying kiss.

* * *

**2.5 in. is around 6.4 cm. I figured that would realistically work for the routine.**


	6. Another Night, Another Dream

**Thanks so much for your reviews, faves and follows. Names at the end.**

**I do not own Skip Beat! or any of its characters**

* * *

Kyouko stiffened slightly at the first touch of Ren's soft, warm lips, then closed her eyes and leaned into him. Her lips parted slightly as he traced them lightly with his tongue, before allowing him more access as he delved inside. She sighed as she met his kiss, tentatively moving her tongue against his. Her pulse quickened even more as she breathed in his scent, a heady combination of sandalwood with a hint of vanilla.

Her hands left her side, deliberately tracing the curves of his face. A small scar under his chin, the curves of his ear. He groaned against her lips before he ventured a little deeper. Another sound left her throat as he slowly explored every bit of her sweet mouth. He could hardly believe after all this time he was finally kissing the woman that he loved and wonder of all wonders she was kissing him back.

Kyouko opened her mouth more, threading her fingers in the softness of his hair as Ren's hands moved to the back of her thighs, lifting her up before pulling her to him as their kiss grew even more heated. They met each other head on, an equal exchange of passion and energy. It was a kiss unlike any that she had experienced with him on set. Ren wished he could stop time, then this moment didn't have to end while Kyouko was glad to be between him and the wall as her legs would have surely given out if she were standing.

Her response to him was making it harder for him to stop as she began sucking and nibbling his lips and tongue. Summoning every last bit of control, he reluctantly broke the kiss but still didn't fully let her mouth go, keeping her bottom lip captured between his, sucking it gently before he finally released it, sending another ripple of warmth through her body.

Her swollen lips were still open slightly as she slowly opened her eyes. Now breathless, she looked at him, seeing a tiny hint of the Emperor of the Night which both thrilled and scared her at the same time. Although every grudge inside of her head was told her to try to make a break for it, Kyouko didn't move, not like she could in her current position. Instead she met Ren's eyes as he began to speak,

"Do you understand now, Mogami-san?" he asked quietly. "That's what I meant when I said your real first kiss is the one that is full of your feelings."

Kyouko could only nod, her face flushed, still slightly dazed and not able to form a thought as he put her back down. The flustered look on her face only made Ren want to kiss her again. He loved her so much and wished so much she'd return his feelings. She was quite aware of what Ren meant and the truth was she wanted nothing more than to feel his lips on hers once more. She loved him and would have liked it if the feeling was mutual.

"I know we still have to practice, but I think we should talk." Ren stated.

Kyouko sighed inwardly, '_Just great. My lack of restraint has led to this. How can I possibly excuse this? I can say I didn't mean to but I'd only be lying.'_

"I'm sorry, Tsuruga-san. It was my fault."

Ren laughed, "So you're saying you didn't want to?"

She blushed as she shook her head again shyly before she mumbled, "I did. I just should have been more careful and controlled myself. I wasn't trying to put you in a bad position. I'm sure you only told yourself you wanted to because of what I said."

"Really? Are you inside my head now? Do you think I won't take responsibility for what I did?" Ren asked with a hint of annoyance.

"But that..." Kyouko fumbled, "I mean you couldn't possibly;" she paused again, "Even if." Kyouko stopped and looked down, '_There's just no way he would want to kiss me of all people. He could have his pick of anyone.'_

Ren sighed in frustration. This conversation was going absolutely nowhere and they still had work to get done. Maybe he should just say it, that it was her that he loved, but the fearful look in her eyes right now was telling him not to. She looked like she would try to escape at any second and that would mess everything up even more. At least right now she had admitted her part in wanting to kiss him, so that was something anyway.

He loved her and needed her so badly but not at the expense of hurting her again or god forbid causing her to run away. _'I have to show her with the rest of my actions that I only have eyes for her. I'm trying to deal with my demons so that I can be a better person and more worthy._' Ren closed his eyes again and shook his head, _'I should have shown a little more restraint, but I won't apologize since I desired it. I should have known no matter what she said that this would be the outcome.'_ After a few more moments of thought Ren decided to give her some space.

With another huge sigh he began, "It's obvious that you don't want to talk about this, so I'll respect your wishes for now. Like I already said, I have to take responsibility for what I did and so do you. No matter what you think, there's a reason why this happened. So we need to have a conversation." he looked at her and paused, "I'll give you a few minutes and we'll meet back here and get started."

Kyouko nodded gratefully leaning back into the cold wall. '_Stupid Kyouko, stupid! I should have said something, anything else instead of chickening out.'_ She frowned, Then again, there was still that other girl. '_Boy I sure made a huge mess of things.'_ What was there to talk about exactly? '_Sure, he said he chose to kiss me but it couldn't be because he actually felt something or even because he loves me. Could it?'_

Kyouko slid down, landing heavily on the mat as she put her head back against the wall with tears burning her eyes. _'Why wasn't I brave enough, again? I'm a complete failure! Now I think I've ruined my chance at anything with him.'_

* * *

Monday August fifth started with the sun shining brightly in the Tokyo sky. A stark contrast to Kyouko's current mood.

Six days.

President Takarada had also called a meeting with all of the LoveMe girls. She was leaving now and waiting for the car, getting ready to go to the set. All she could think about was his kiss, it was way better than anything she imagined. As a result, Kyouko was finding it hard to face Ren or look him in the eye. Still, her pride as an actress demanded it.

They had made it through their practice last night as themselves. So she would get through today on set with him as well. Luckily for her there were no love scenes scheduled for today. Kyouko absently touched her lips again as the car pulled up. Her mind was running in circles with the same thing it had been for the past twelve hours.

'_Tsuruga-san's lips, his hands, his...'_ she stopped her indecent train of thought. It happened a lot lately.

Kyouko found herself getting ready to reject how she felt again. It was all too easy, but the President's speech had her thinking again...

"What you ladies need to learn to do is take your past experiences and get them to work in your favor." he began, "I'm sure you remember all of your good ones, but what about the bad?"

The girls sat silently and said nothing.

"Even these bad experiences can help you in your career. It will also help you in your life." he finished.

Sebastian came in then and whispered something to Lory before his eyes lit up.

"So if you're dealing with a feeling or problem you're familiar with, take a moment and remember how you handled it last time. While it helped to get you to where you are today, you can also deal with it in another way. And that!" he paused as he took a puff of his cigar, "Is where you can gain a whole new experience. So I'll finish by saying to you that whatever it is you're feeling, don't reject it! Instead, embrace it and let it shape you into a better person and a better actress."

The young women looked at each other or at least that's what Kyouko thought. Actually everyone in the room was looking at her.

"Try to look at everything as if you were on the outside looking in. What would you see differently? What can you learn from it? Whether it's negative or positive, take a step back and try to look at it objectively and see what you can take from it to help yourselves as actresses. That's what I had in mind when I had you doing your number for the anniversary show. So tell me, has the experience helped you?"

They all had to nod. Even though none of them liked the idea at first, it was pretty fun, better than LoveMe work and they were still putting on a performance.

"Armed with this new information, you ladies can actually shape how things turn out for you. Take those fairytales that you love so much, Mogami-kun."

He turned to look at Kyouko who blanched.

"Wouldn't you say that in the end the princess was meant to end up with her prince?"

Kyouko nodded as he continued, "Then there's no reason that the same thing can't be true with you. If it's something you love, go after it and make sure that when it's all said and done that you did everything that you could possibly do to try and get it. The same is true for anything, or anyone else you may possibly want." he finished with a smile.

"And you Kotonami-kun. You're here because you don't have feelings of love when it comes to your family. You think that their happiness will overtake yours and that you won't be able to think of your own happiness."

Kanae crossed her arms and said nothing,

"We may not be able to choose our parents or who we share a home with. You may not see it now but it's best to look at the positive and negative points. Have you stopped to think what it would be like if you were no longer around or if your family or some other family member wasn't around? Also can you truly say that you're not happy right now? You're in a career you've always dreamed of and have real friends for the first time in your life."

Kanae was silent as she pondered his question.

"You should consider that. This week more than ever, anything can happen and in the blink of an eye all that we know and love can be gone."

Lory sat back down taking a sip of his tea as he watched the LoveMe girls faces,

"Finally, we have Chiori, who lost her love for acting. Rather than looking at the good that it brought you, instead you started to focus only on the bad parts and lost your way."

Chiori nodded as Lory kept speaking,

"That brings me back to the negative experiences. Just because acting as a child ended up being troublesome doesn't mean that acting when you're older needs to be as bad. Don't keep making the same decision when the situation comes up again. Do something different! With that in mind, Amamiya-kun, what's the verdict? Would you say you're starting to appreciate your acting and your roles?"

"Yes, President, I think I am." Chiori answered slowly.

"Good, I'm glad to hear it. There may be hope for you LoveMe members yet, which makes me want very happy since it means I've done my job and allowed you all to let some kind of love back in your lives." Lory said as he walked over to the window and looked out.

"Now on to other things. I trust that you've noticed nothing out of the ordinary over the past few days."

They all shook their heads as did he,

"Great, that's fine. Remember I am a phone call away. I'll see you here Saturday afternoon at noon. Many preparations must be done for the show."

With that Sebastian had arrived and escorted them to the waiting vehicles.

That was an hour ago. Now Kyouko was sitting in her dressing room pondering the President's words. If she took what he said to heart then she shouldn't worry so much about being rejected. If that happened then she could take the negative experience and use it to help her career. Still she kept remembering her feelings when she heard Ren talking about how he couldn't be happy when talking about the high school girl. A part of her secretly hoped that he still felt that way. If he did maybe she still had an opening, even after her recent cowardly antics.

Kyouko still remembered his exact words. '_No matter where I am I can't have someone important.'_ If he couldn't find happiness with the girl, could he really be with her? If he felt he didn't deserve it then the answer would be no. She took a deep breath as she looked at herself in the mirror willing the tears not to fall from her face again. Crying would do no good. Action, on the other hand, would.

_'I need to stop overthinking this, deal with it and just do it.'_

With that in mind, this was so much easier said than done. Turning away from the mirror, she faced the closed door. It was going to be hard to face him right now but she had to do her job and hope that she could talk about things with him before this week was over.

Kyouko went to her bag and pulled out the newspaper. It had been an unconscious habit that she'd go to check it every couple of days. She looked at it and frowned. For some reason in the back of her mind she somehow hoped that the large black lettering would say something else. Then Kyouko realized she was just letting her imagination get a little carried away again.

'_Still it would be nice if that happened.'_ she thought with a sad smile as she put it back in her bag.

* * *

Kyouko unlocked the door to Ren's condo around six p.m. To her relief and slight dismay she found the place empty. Ren left the set a couple of hours earlier than she had so she hadn't had a chance to say good-bye . Kyouko pulled out her phone, about to send him a text message when it buzzed.

**"I have two appearances so it will be a late night. I'm sorry I'll miss out on your wonderful cooking. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow. Sweet dreams."**

Kyouko smiled as she shook her head. Her schedule was packed for the next three days so that she could have the Friday off before the awards show. As for him if she was busy he certainly was too.

Speaking of work. _'Looks like I'm saved by my schedule.' _Kyouko mused as she went to start cooking.

Around eight p.m. she fell asleep watching the end of a talk show. She woke up an hour later, took a shower and settled into bed.

* * *

Kyouko opened her eyes and knew she was about to have another dream as she watched the man walk over. This time he was all in black. He wore dark jeans and a dark short-sleeved shirt along with a watch and fingerless black biker gloves.

"Hello, Rick." Kyouko said with a bow. '_That watch seems familiar somehow.'_

Rick chuckled, "You're so traditional even in your dreams."

Kyouko got set to apologize when he put up a gloved hand, "I already know what you're going to say. Don't worry about it. Let me start by saying this time we'll be focusing on the present. However we'll be doing these recent events in a different order than you'd expect. Things will make more sense to you that way."

Kyouko nodded as he motioned behind him,

"We'll start here."

Kyouko looked as the scene changed to Murasame hanging in the air, breathing hard. All around the set, voices screamed,

"Murasame-kun!"

"It's no use! He's really going to fall!"

"Heel-san, please calm down! Let go of..."

"A mat. Someone go get a mat!"

"The safety net is closer."

"Forget all that, someone go and stop that foreigner!"

"Somebody do something, fast!"

One voice stood out among all of them. Kyouko could hear herself clearly.

"You mustn't kill, Nii-san!"

"You remember the conversation later, don't you?" Rick asked.

Kyouko nodded, "He said that because of me he escaped death." she responded quietly, "So that means that the boy from before is..."

Rick nodded,

"But he looks so different." Kyouko whispered.

"The fact is that you were the one who was able to bring him out of it. Each time he got caught up you saved him. Are you ready to see another time?"

Kyouko nodded as the picture faded and changed to the outside of a clothing store.

"These guys say they want to play with me. Do you think I can, Nii-san?"

A man with blond, wavy hair laughed, "Nii-san? When she said her important man I thought she meant her boyfriend. That would be easier since men are more than happy to lend us their women. Since she's his family, he might not want to leave her with us to save himself."

Another voice spoke up, belonging to a man with dark seaweed looking hair. "Don't worry about it, they're all the same. After all when it comes down to it, men only want to protect themselves." he paused as he walked right up to Ren, "Isn't that right, _Nii-san_?"

Ren said nothing as he continued, "It's for your own good, so let us borrow your sister?"

Completely ignoring the men, Ren walked over, "Come on. Let's go, Setsu."

"I know what happens from here. I sensed such a murderous aura from him." Kyouko started as she watched the fight begin. "I was so worried that he'd hurt someone which would bring bad press and break his cover."She stopped as she looked down, "I felt so dumb for saying what I did, but a part of me was still glad that he fought for me." she finished.

"That was definitely the boy that I knew." Rick replied.

"I always thought something dark was controlling him then. I had no idea what it was." she said quietly.

Finally, Kyouko heard herself saying, "Nii-san! Don't kill him!" and he stopped, pressing his hands against the wall.

"The look in his eyes when I saw him. I saw it again. It looked like," Kyouko began.

"Like this?" Rick asked as the view changed again.

Now Kyouko was looking at Ren behind the steering wheel of a car.

'_Tsuruga-san._' Kyouko's heart constricted as she remembered. "It's the Dark Moon set again. I should have known something would happen. I had a bad feeling when Princess Rosa came apart. I told myself it was nothing because he said he would be okay and I," her voice broke, "I was so relieved he didn't get hurt."

"If you're curious about what he was seeing, you already got a glimpse of that last time."

"I remember the cold. I put my hands around his without thinking. It was freezing."

"Which is what brought him out of it again, right?"

Kyouko nodded, "But what else can I do to help him?"

"You already have." he replied.

Kyouko looked at the changing image.

She was shopping at the store for ingredients with Ren, clad in a white suit with a black shirt. Back at his house Kyouko sat at the table while he changed and came back to start cooking.

"I could tell he was going about it all wrong. Since he invited me and it looked like something important, I felt it wasn't my place to interrupt."

Rick laughed as he watched the heaping plates of rice get put down as Ren said,

"This is even better than my previous attempt!'

"He wanted me to put on the infiniti sign with ketchup." Kyouko said as the memory surfaced of having to eat it, "I remember it was pretty awful."

Rick nodded again, "What can I say? We might not be the best cooks but I still think it helps." he said.

"That was the night that," Kyouko broke off.

"You don't have to say anything, I know it's hard for you to talk about. But tell me, when did you know?"

"Truthfully, it was a while before that night. I was just denying my feelings all this time." Before Kyouko could think too much more about it she finally made a connection to what had been nagging at her memory from the beginning. '_Wait a second! A black band with a white face? Two small clocks at the numbers three and nine? I've seen that watch before!'_

"I saw that watch in the hotel. It was stopped on 2:13." Kyouko said.

Rick looked to her. "This watch, yes it was mine. That was the time of my death that afternoon."

"But why would?" she began.

Rick responded, "He wanted so desperately to keep that person locked away, that he keeps it as a reminder. Though he wants it to remember not to hurt anyone, it's more like a handcuff, keeping him stuck in his past. As you saw from the beginning it doesn't seem to be working. It's me. My death is the reason he thinks he doesn't deserve to be happy. That's what I meant when you saved him. When you're around he forgets. That's not such a bad thing since he needs to stop hiding."

Kyouko stood there not quite sure what to think as he continued,

"He has it in his head that he has to make a choice between us. But I've told him so many times to stand up. That I couldn't stand when people lived their lives for someone other than themselves." he paused, "That night when you guys ate that rice together, he finally decided to live for himself. Right then he finally made his choice."

He looked to Kyouko who was still trying to process everything.

"Speaking of food for thought, here's a little something to think about until I see you. You figured out that he made that meal because he was scared of something. It's true that he was scared but not of what you thought. I'll leave that for him to tell you. Do you think you can figure out what I told him when we made that meal the first time?

"Hmm." Kyouko replied. She had no idea.

Rick smiled, "It's fine, I'll tell you next time. You know who he is now but not who he really is? Next time, everything will become crystal clear and you'll completely understand. I know that you're wrestling with the way that you feel, and it will definitely help you along."

Kyouko closed her eyes, hoping he was right. She just couldn't stop being so full of fear. She opened her eyes as Rick started talking,

"Here's a hint, it will focus on the future. You know as well as anyone how the past can affect that, and right now the way you're going that headline will most certainly come to pass."

"So you're saying that no matter what we do, it won't change anything?" Kyouko asked, filling with a sense of dread.

He shook his head, "It only takes one thing happening differently to change so many outcomes. It could be only one choice or a combination of them but one or all of them become dependent on each other." he looked at Kyouko as he touched his watch, "It looks like our time is up for tonight. I'll be back."

He walked away as the scene faded to black and Kyouko woke up. Eight a.m. '_I guess he really was out of time. But I really wanted a clue about what I could do to change things.' _She sat up_. 'Could telling him I love him be what makes everything happen. Could staying silent? Did the kiss start this whole thing?'_

Kyouko now had more questions than answers at the moment but she was glad to know that there was still a possibility to change things and found that she was looking forward to the next dream._ "_I hope it can steer me in the right direction soon since I can't do it._"_

* * *

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	7. A Little Bit of Fun

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**I do not own Skip Beat!**

**Narration during the video is **_italicized. _**  
**

**Also I've read and proofed but still apologize for any mistakes.**

* * *

Five days.

Getting up out of bed, Kyouko padded her way to the bathroom to begin her morning routine, preparing herself for the first of two busy days. Going to the kitchen to grab a quick breakfast before the car arrived, she saw the note on the counter.

**Mogami-san,**

**Looks like I've missed you again. I didn't want to interrupt your sleep. I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to see you today but you have to go to TBM tomorrow, right? I have an appearance there tomorrow so I'll see you there when you're done.**

**Ren**

Kyouko folded the piece of paper and shook her head. Seems time wasn't cooperating for the moment. Though she was still pretty anxious Kyouko found that things were getting worse the more she ignored the elephant in the room. All it did was cause her imagination to run away from her and start thinking the worse possible thoughts.

She found that she missed him now. He wouldn't be on set today or tomorrow but would be back on Thursday. Kyouko sighed. At least she didn't have to worry about Izumi any longer. Turned out she hadn't been up to the task so this week a new actress was brought in. Momose was a pro and they were caught up almost immediately. Not only that but Kyouko liked the woman very much and they got along well. Lunch times were spent talking about various mishaps during their past filming.

Kyouko was happy with whatever took her mind off of her current predicament as well as another decision she was weighing. She had always wanted to go about it a certain way, but with events happening the way they were, she would have to rethink that decision.

Grabbing a quick breakfast, Kyouko grabbed her bag and went outside, leaving the doors of the building right as the car pulled up.

* * *

Kyouko got up and looked to the clock. It was the start of a new day and she woke up a little too early. Still it didn't matter. Kyouko was excited even if it meant there were only fours days left. Today was Thursday so tonight she was back at TBM and wonder of all wonders her current roommate was the guest on this evening's show. Kyouko would enjoy spending time with him, even if it was going to be from behind a chicken costume.

Well that would be later. First Kyouko and the LoveMe girls were going to be doing a parody along with two of the Ishibashis and Ren. She was looking forward to it. After that there would be a question and answer session with Ruriko and Momose to see who knew their co-star the best. The winner would get a "dance" with Bo.

All the better, since filming would probably go so slow since Ren wasn't around. Five p.m couldn't arrive soon enough.

* * *

Kyouko stood on the set of Bridge Rock deep in conversation with the Ishibashi's.

"It's really great to see you again, Kyouko-chan." Hikaru stated.

"Thank you, Ishibashi-san. I have to admit, I've missed being here, especially being Bo. Who knew I would miss playing the part of a chicken?" she replied with a laugh as Yuusei elbowed Hikaru.

"Um, Kyouko-chan, I just wanted to know if..."

Just then Kyouko's phone went off as she looked at them, "Excuse me but I have to take this," she waved as she went off to her dressing room to answer her call.

All of the Ishibashi's gave a collective sigh as they watched her walk away.

Kyouko sat on stage now as her friends entered. She wanted to have a conversation with them, but there was no time. She felt Ren's eyes on her from backstage as she sat on the comfortable beige couch with Kanae and Chiori. The Ishibashi's each had brown, plush chairs. The music started as the three men stood up.

"Good evening and welcome to Bridge Rock!" Hikaru yelled as the audience screamed and whistled. "Tonight to start off, we have the members of the very talented LME studios here to celebrate their upcoming anniversary!"

The crowd voiced their approval as each person was introduced. Kyouko's applause was the loudest.

"Now I saw how you women perked up when you heard LME but looked disappointed." Hikaru took a long pause before he continued, "Wait no more everyone, here's the man you've been waiting for. Come on out, Ren Tsuruga!"

The crowd became deafening as a couple of women held up a huge sign which read, "Double Your Pleasure" in the front row. Ren eyes went wide before he turned away, smiled and then waved as he took a seat on the couch across from the LoveMe women. After five minutes it was quiet save for the occasional whistle and shout of "Marry Me!"

"Thanks for joining us tonight." Yuusei stated as he stood up. "We'll be starting out with a parody tonight. Can you remember the last time you did one of those?" he asked Ren with a smile.

Ren shook his head, "No, I've had to sing and dance but I've never made fun of my roles. I have to say I really enjoyed it." he replied.

Shinichi spoke up, "So you've remained at the top as Japan's number one actor again this year. How do you do it?"

Ren laughed, "I have to say that with such great co-stars it makes coming to work so much more enjoyable. I always want to give my all when I'm acting."

"No doubt." Hikaru spoke up. "We'll have plenty more later with two of your former co-stars from Ring-Doh and Dark Moon. We wanted to see which one of them knew the most about you."

"I look forward to it." Ren nodded.

"We're going to take a break and be back to get started with our "film." Yuusei said as the music started.

When the music came back up to signal the return of the show, the lights were dimmed as the projector screen was lowered. The words, 'Finding Miyoko: A Bridge Rock Drama Parody' are shown, a Hikaru voice over is heard as two children appear on the screen,

_"Once upon a time there lived two childhood friends who spent a few days together and were starting to fall in love with each other."_

A boy and a girl hugged, then exchanged flowers and rocks.

_"Their names were Ken Himuri and Miyoko Kogami. They were inseparable until one day Ken had to leave, going back to America to finish his studies."_

"NO! Ken don't leave!" a young Miyoko cried out as the scene faded.

The words, 'Ten Years Later' appeared on the screen.

_"Ken has come back to Tokyo. He's now claimed the top position at the agency where he works, but on his nights alone he wonders what happened to Miyoko."_

Ken (played by Ren) is driving the streets of Tokyo thinking about Miyoko, not paying attention as he nearly runs into a girl crossing the intersection. Unknown to him Miyoko, played by Chiori, jumps out of the way and lands in some garbage sitting out on the sidewalk. A man with perfect blue eyes and blond hair, named Kou, played by Shinichi, sees her and runs over to help as Ken still stunned in his car, jumps out to see if everything's okay.

"Don't come any closer!" Kou says, "You nearly killed this poor woman. I'll take care of her." Kou and Miyoko get up, wiping garbage off of Miyoko before they walk off. Ken stands there, looking absently at the street, his car door open with horns blaring around him.

"There! We made it to the hospital. Let's go get you checked out and make sure you're okay." Kou says, leading Miyoko inside.

_"Miyoko with all that's gone on drops her diary and her stone at the entrance of the hospital. Why she happens to be holding these particular items is a mystery to everyone."_

The film plays on as multiple people enter the hospital and almost trip over the diary or stone but don't stop to pick it up.

_"Finally, a black car pulls up and it's none other than Ken. He wanted to check out the hospital and make sure that the girl he hit was there and wasn't hurt."_narration pauses,_ "Just as he's headed to the hospital entrance he sees the diary and the stone."_

"Oh my goodness! This is my stone! And this diary belongs to." Ken pauses and looks around before opening the book and reading it, "It's Miyoko! I've finally found her! But now I've been hardened by this cruel world. Maybe she can help me to love again."

_"Ken goes into the hospital and walks right past the nurse's station, checking the first room he sees and what a coincidence! Miyoko happens to be in it. She's sleeping but is otherwise fine."_

"I've finally found you." Ken remarks quietly as he touches Miyoko's cheek.

_"Ken pulls out the tubes, picks Miyoko up out of the bed then carries her past all of the nurses, orderlies and even security to his car. After twenty minutes, it is still waiting on the curb even though it's expensive and was left running. From there Ken brings Miyoko home. Once inside, she wakes up not knowing where she is. Ken has some food ready for her to eat. Unfortunately for Miyoko, even though Ken may be every woman's dream, his skills in the kitchen leave a lot to be desired."_

"Thank you, kind stranger." Miyoko says not freaking out at all as she takes a bite of soup.

Ken smiles, "You're welcome. I know I've just carried you out of a hospital and you might be hurt but I wanted to invite you to a dinner party that's being held at my agency tonight."

"I'd love to go!" Miyoko exclaims and then passes out.

_"While Miyoko is "resting", Ken ponders over whether or not he should reveal who he really is to her. Seeing the time, he wakes her up and when she doesn't respond carries her back out to his car. She comes to halfway to the venue. Miyoko is still a little out of it and when Ken walks in he is greeted by none other than his ex-girlfriend._

Kyouko, playing Aki, is in a blonde wig and appears in the scene, "Why hello, Ken. It's been awhile." she says coming up to him and grabbing an arm, "I've missed you so much and I hoped you would be here. Who is this?" Aki asks Ken, taking in Miyoko.

"She's none of your concern Aki. I just happened to almost hit her with my car and then carried her out of the hospital and in case that didn't work I tried to poison her with my cooking. I'm not sure why I felt the need to tell you that, as it's not important. The fact of the matter is, she's my date tonight."

"Aw but I thought you were coming here to be with me." Aki pouted.

"Sorry." Ken shrugs, "But hey, I could definitely use a favor. Can you take Miyoko upstairs to give her a makeover? I don't want anyone to try and take advantage of her."

Aki nods, "Okay." she replies sighing, "It seems no matter what, I'll do anything for you, Ken." turning to Miyoko, "Come with me, hon."

_"Ten minutes later, Miyoko, played now by Kanae, comes down the stairs. Her hair is flowing and her red heels stand out against the black dress she is wearing. The music stops and a light shines as she makes her way down each step slowly. She trips on the last one and falls into the arms of Kei."_

Kei (played by Yuusei and twin brother of Kou) grabs her. "Be careful." Kei says, "You never know who might try to run away with you at this sort of party."

"Thanks." Miyoko replies as she holds her head, "Where am I?"

"It doesn't matter. Just come with me." Kei replies, taking her hand.

_"They walk off together as Ken, unaware of everything going on, is still trying to figure out how he should reveal his identity. Suddenly a group of women come up to him._

"I love you Ken!" says one woman.

"Why don't you love me?" questions the second.

"Forget them and come home with me." says a third.

"I'm pregnant, Ken! Even though I slept with seven men in four days, I'm 125 percent sure that it's yours."

_"An audible "GASP" can be heard in the crowd as Ken perks up at the last statement and smiles, deciding to tell Miyoko who he is that very night. With a wave, he walks into the kitchen, getting a drink as three of the four women pass out, nearly tripping the other guests who happen to be walking by."_

A scream breaks the music in the background as Miyoko goes running, "Just leave me alone, all of you!" she screams as she runs out the door.

_"Miyoko walks alone in the dark for what seems like an hour, but after two minutes, Miyoko realizes she still has no clue where she is and sits down on the side of the road. Aki happens to be driving by and picks her up."_

"Where to?" Aki asks as Miyoko stares at her blankly,

"Actually I was staying with that guy I was with."

"I see." Aki replies, "We'll go there and wait for him."

_"Two hours later, Ken finally arrives and lets them in while Miyoko takes a shower. Aki takes the opportunity to try and steal a kiss (among other things) from Ken, but he's still too preoccupied."_

"You're no fun at all." Aki whines before leaving.

_"Now that Miyoko's out of the shower, Ken and Miyoko walk to the store to get some dinner. Once they return, Kei and Kou are waiting there for him._

"Miyoko is mine! I made sure to get her to the hospital." Kou states

"Wait a minute! I'm the one who made sure she didn't fall down the stairs." Kei shouted.

"Miyoko, you have to stay with me. I may have almost hurt you but I made up for it by taking care of you." Ken pauses, "Besides, it's me. I'm your long lost friend, Ken."

Miyoko's eyes went wide, "Ken! I haven't seen you in so long! Wait? Who are you?"

"I'm Ken. I gave you this." he says pulling out the stone.

"Oh." Miyoko says, "I'm sorry I think I hit my head too hard, I still have no idea who you are."

_"Ken and Miyoko start talking and getting into a rather deep conversation, or so everyone thinks."_ Hikaru's narration stops. _"When they're done, Miyoko is still more confused than ever, but being surrounded by three men in a big city, she plays it off as she figures out her escape."_

"Hey!" Kou and Kei speak up at the same time, "No having conversations about something only you two would know." they say " We challenge you to a fight, whoever wins gets Miyoko."

"A fight?" Ken repeats

"Actually, we want to do something else. It's our favorite game to play. It's called the, "Which one is Kou..." Kei begins but Ken cuts him off.

"Okay," Ken nods, "Pick something. My PS3 is inside and I have GTA: IV and Call of Duty."

"Alright! Let's go." Kei and Kou proclaim as the three of them go inside, shutting the door in Miyoko's face.

_"Miyoko stands there for a moment, wondering if she should knock and then after a while realizes the men are gone and decides to go outside. After five minutes a car pulls up. Without a thought, Miyoko walks up to it."_

"I see the men have gone off to play and left you here." Aki states as Miyoko nodded, "Well come on, hop in. You seem like a nice girl and at least I finally get to have something that Ken wants." she says, grabbing Miyoko's hand as they speed off into the Tokyo night.

The words 'The End' flash on the projector as the screen fades to black and the lights come up amid audience cheers and catcalls.

"So did you enjoy that, guys?" Hikaru asks as the audience gets even louder.

"We'd like to thank the LME actor and actresses for playing along." Yuusei says as Kyouko, Kanae, Chiori and Ren all stand up to take a bow.

"Speaking of playing, once we get back from the break, it's time to play 'I know my co-star.' The winner gets a free dinner for two at The Aronia and a picture with Bo."

The LoveMe girls made their exit together.

"I wish I could talk more, but I have to go change." Kyouko said as she gave them a wave.

"We'll see you in a couple of days." Chiori said.

"Mou, don't be a stranger. Call us tomorrow." she said as Kyouko walked into her dressing room.

Back on stage, Ren looked up to try and find Kyouko but she was already gone.

Back in the dressing room, Kyouko threw her headband on as she put Bo's chicken head on. As she walked out, she went to the Studio to wait for the cameras to start rolling. Twenty minutes later, the game was over with Momose as the winner. Kyouko had been trying to get away so that she could get back in time to change. Turns out she really enjoyed Bo and wanted to take as many pictures and spend as much time with him as she could.

"I'm running late." Kyouko said to herself as she looked around. Seeing that the coast was clear she made a beeline for her dressing room.

* * *

Ren was walking outside when he caught a glimpse of the chicken. Deciding against barging in, he waited outside the door where he saw the last of the feathers disappear. Ever since the first day he met him, Ren was always curious to learn of the person he had been pouring out his feelings to. Ten minutes went by when Kyouko exited.

_'It couldn't be._' he thought. '_But there's no one else that went in there.'_

"Is there anyone else in there with you?" Ren asked. He knew it was not in Kyouko's nature to lie.

The surprise and shock on Kyouko's face at hearing his voice gave her away as she shook her head.

"You're the chicken?"

Kyouko's eyes widened and then she dropped her head, "Yes." she said quietly. "It started out as a temporary assignment, which is why I said I was losing my job." she finished quietly.

Ren only laughed, _'Figures I would tell the girl I love that I love her.'_ he thought and then laughed even more as he remembered her words. _'She even told me to get closer to her and seduce her. Oh if she had any idea how much I'd like to put that into action.'_

He looked up to see Kyouko frowning at him now, "I'm not sure what's so funny, Tsuruga-san. Since you feel the need to laugh at me, you can at least tell me why." she finished.

Ren shook his head, "I'm sorry Mogami-san. I got a little carried away with my thoughts." he replied sincerely, "Please don't be mad."

Kyouko blushed and then looked away, "I can't really stay mad at you." she said shyly before her face hardened, "Unless you tell me you haven't eaten today." she stated as the atmosphere became tense and dark.

He held up his hands, "I promise you, I ate plenty." he responded, giving her a look. "Now I have a question of my own. Does the chicken have a name?"

Kyouko nodded, "Bo." she said.

Ren nodded and smiled, "Figures." he stopped and thought, '_I get help from the woman that I love in a chicken costume, while Rick tries to get me to conquer my fears with another chicken. Their names even start with the same letter._' he shook his head as he said, "I had a chicken when I was a kid. I called him Brian."

"Really?" Kyouko questioned, not letting on that she already knew this information. She was curious to know if he'd say anything else.

After a few minutes, he moved over to her, "Well it's getting late, we better get going."

Kyouko nodded as she followed him. On the way back, Kyouko could barely keep her eyes open and truth be told, neither could he. She was asleep halfway to the condo.

_'As much as I want to have that talk, tonight just isn't going to work.'_ he thought sadly.

Once they arrived to his condo, he had the driver help them upstairs. Taking off her shoes, he carried her to the guest bed.

"Goodnight, Mogami-san." he whispered softly before he left the room.

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for reading. I wanted to have a little fun on the show before the next chapter. I always see the usual question and answer bit when it comes to Bridge Rock so I wanted to do something different. I was trying to do a drama/soap opera parody (Just look up Soap Within a Show on TV Tropes and Asian Drama Parody on YouTube) while throwing in 2-3 things from Skip Beat. I hope it worked since I'd like to explore humor. I also wanted to get the news out about Bo since I'm looking to have a reveal for a reveal in this story.


	8. Future Imperfect

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

**Also thanks for your reviews and follows.**

**WARNING: MAJOR and secondary character deaths ahead, a little graphic as well for this chapter only!**

* * *

Rick walked toward Kyouko again, dressed again in all black. This time the biker gloves were gone.

"Hello." Kyouko replied.

"So we meet again for the final time." he said sadly. "I'm going to warn you now, this will all be extremely difficult to watch. However, it seems to be the only way to get you to take action." Rick sighed, taking a long pause, "Now then, let's begin." he finished solemnly as the scene changed.

Kyouko stood inside LME now. Looking at the time it was 7:25. The awards show had just ended and various LME talents were inside waiting for the limos to arrive so that they could leave the building. Kyouko stood now, talking to her fellow LoveMe members as well as Yashiro and Ren. Two minutes later, they got the signal to start walking to the vehicle. Following the security men, they all walked to the first waiting limo. The door opened and Chiori gets inside just as 7:30 arrived.

Suddenly an everyday scene turned into chaos. Kyouko watched as a red car blew right through the barricade, weaving as it ran into a car with clearance by security to pull out on the opposite side of the street. Upon impact, the cars spun out and collided right into the limo.

"Amamiya-san!" Kyouko heard Ren call out as he made his way along with security into the vehicle.

Kyouko saw herself rushing to the limo but it was too late. The two cars caught fire. Everyone started running in the other direction as everything moved in slow motion. Ten seconds later, the red car becomes a massive fireball. As a result, the heavy limo is moved onto the sidewalk where it hits some bystanders. Meanwhile various pieces of the car go flying as people try to duck and run for cover.

When Kyouko looked up, what she saw caused her to cover her mouth in horror. Her best friend and Ren were on the ground. They had been the closest to the car and even though Kanae made a run for it, she had been unable to completely avoid the blast, as were the other nine people in the immediate vicinity, including a woman and her two children. Kyouko looked down at her arms, seeing they were covered in blood. Still it wasn't herself she was worried about. Running over to her fallen friend, Kanae had a lot of cuts along with two broken legs. Hearing the sirens sound in the background, Kyouko started to speak,

"Mouko, can you hear me? Say something please."

Kanae mumbled something and tried to move, but Kyouko kept her down.

"Don't move, you have metal on top of your legs. Help is coming." She said as tears sprang to her eyes.

The paramedics and firemen came running up as Kyouko turned to look over at Ren. Yashiro, who was next to Kyouko and was also covered in scrapes and blood, had his glasses off, a frown marring his features. His eyes appeared to be glistening as well. Kyouko is pushed out of the way as the firemen attend to Kanae. Moving over she can see a piece of a hubcap and wheel still burning about two meters away from Ren on the sidewalk as she walks over.

"Is Tsuruga-san okay, Yashiro-san?" Kyouko heard herself asking.

He said nothing and that's when Kyouko looked down. His face was full of cuts and bloodied, but the blood under his head was what caught her attention. She opened her mouth to let out a scream as the firemen move in. They took his vitals but couldn't seem to get anything from him. Shaking his head sadly as he turned to her,

"I had been doing what I can but I couldn't get any response. Not only that but he's sustained severe head trauma. It's not looking good." he finished.

The half dozen men surrounding Ren punctuated Yashiro's last sentence. Catching a glimpse of the pale man on the stretcher with a neck brace, he seemed a shadow of his usual self. Kyouko could say nothing. She closed her eyes, covering them with her hands as she felt the tears against them, feeling as if her heart stopped beating as well.

The hand on her shoulder interrupted her, "We need to move on now."

She nodded, her face still in her hands. After a minute, she looked up, surrounded by the white washed walls of the hospital. Hushed voices could be heard as Kyouko found herself sitting in a chair with Yashiro and Sebastian. Lory had a solemn look on his face as he looked at everyone.

"Today is an extremely sad day here at LME. A day that started out filled with so much love and laughter as we celebrated our anniversary has taken a sudden and sad turn. We have lost two members of our family this evening and another is in critical but stable condition."

"Then that means that..." Kyouko couldn't even finish the thought as her voice broke and the tears came flooding back.

"I'm afraid that Ren and Chiori are gone. Chiori died at the scene instantly." Lory said his own voice breaking. He stopped as Sebastian, his eyes shining gave the President a tissue, "And as for Ren, he has officially been declared brain dead. His head trauma along with lack of oxygen was too much for his body to handle."

The area was silent. Kyouko looked up for a second, taking a look around her for the first time. Yashiro had his glasses off still, his head in his hands. The constant shaking of his shoulders was the main evidence of any emotion she could see. Lory and Sebastian were glued to their tissues. Kyouko had no idea how she looked to them and frankly she didn't care.

'_Dead._' That was the only word that echoed in Kyouko's head.

Lory continued, "I was able to share that with you with the permission of his parents. They also said that if you wanted you could see him one last time. Life support is keeping him breathing right now. His wishes were to be able to save someone else in the event of his death and with that in mind he has chosen to donate his organs. Once that is done and his parents arrive, he will be taken off of life support. From there..."

Kyouko's loud, broken sob cut off the rest of Lory's statement. What would she do now? Her co-star was no longer living. Sure they hadn't gotten along at first but the set of Box-R was one of the dramas she looked forward to seeing. Chiori had just started to feel good about acting again and now her friends and family would be watching old scenes and burying a family member.

Her first female friend, laying in a hospital bed. She was okay and would get up again but Kyouko wanted to see her. Right now with only family allowed Kyouko had to wait. She wished that no one had to die and that nobody had been injured. Fresh tears stung her eyes, it wasn't fair. Kyouko wanted to ask somebody. Why? Why did it have to be them? What made her so special that she only got away with cuts and bruises?

Adding to that fact, the man she loved was no longer here. Even worse, she never got the chance to tell him and now she never would. His parents, his friends, there were so many people who were affected by his loss. She felt selfish for thinking as she did but now everything was over before it even started. This fact rang in Kyouko's head the loudest of all. She had taken everything for granted and thought that time would always be on her side. In a matter of minutes, it was all over.

Now faced with a life where he was no longer in it, Kyouko wanted to do nothing. She felt as if the world had grown darker and colder. Barely able to see, barely able to breathe, wishing so much that she had been the one to go in his place. Trying to compose herself, Kyouko closed her eyes again, taking some deep breaths as she willed her tears to stop. As much as she hurt, she had to move on. There was time for grieving of course, but she had to deal with it.

'_I have to move on. That's what he would want. He said that even when a death happened, it didn't stop him from working, so I can't let it stop me either.'_

Still, Kyouko was unable to deny this awful feeling. She looked up to see Rick standing there.

"Right now I can't figure out how to prevent this. What do I do?" She pleaded.

"I don't have the answers for you. I know this feels very real, but you _can_ still do something to change it. For now, we have a change of our own."

Kyouko was now in the hospital room looking at a bed. When she stopped to really look, she gasped. There in front of her was Ren. His head was completely covered with a white bandage and his cuts were mended. Tears formed in her eyes again as she looked at him. The beeps and whooshes as the machine pumped air into him were the only sounds Kyouko heard. If she didn't know better she would think that he was sleeping. Kyouko instinctively reached out to touch his cheek as the first of her tears finally fell.

"You were the last person he thought about." Rick's voice stated to her quietly as her sobs pierced the quiet room.

She turned as she saw a man and woman with blond hair enter the room, tears rolling down their cheeks as well.

_'Father.'_ Kyouko thought as they walked right by her, each taking a hand as Kyouko looked on.

"All this time, I was waiting for him to come back to us, and this is how I finally have to see him." Julie said sadly as her tears flowed again.

Kuu, looked on with tears in his eyes, "At least I convinced him to do the video. We have something to remember him how he really was. Our very cute son so full of life."

Just when Kyouko thought she could cry no more, just like that her tears started again.

"So now you have an idea of his true identity, part of it anyway." Rick continued.

Kyouko stood in the darkness that now surrounded her, trying to process what he said to her.

"That was father and mother if I had to guess. Since they are his parents, then that means that he is actually a Hizuri. Seeing that I had to act out his son, than that means..." Kyouko started.

"Yes, you're drawing the right conclusion." He said as the image changed in front of her.

The sky was gray and rain fell, as a crowd of people stood, wearing black and holding umbrellas. The fresh earth could be seen all around the white coffin above the ground. Kyouko could only hear the words,

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, yet love leaves a memory no one can steal. We are here today to honor the memory of Kuon Hizuri."

Kyouko watched the people cry as they stood in their seats, then she watched as people one by one grabbed a flower to put on top of the coffin as it was lowered into the ground. She saw herself, holding her own Queen Rosa. Giving it a kiss along with her stone, she dropped the flower onto the coffin just as the dirt was starting to be piled on. Gripping the stone tightly in her hand, she saw as Kuu and Julie each put an arm around her as they all walked back and stood watching until the last of the dirt was put on.

"So it all ends here." Rick said, as the scene changed to a graveyard. The white, marble tombstone was cold to her touch as she fingered the engraved letters.

'_Kuon Hizuri, our beloved son taken away from us too soon.'_ Beneath that it said '_February 10, 1992- August 11, 2013'_ and finally under that, '_You will forever be in our hearts.'_

"This isn't right." Kyouko kept saying to herself. "Why couldn't it be me?"

"You know that would never happen, don't you?" She heard Rick say. "You must know he would never forgive himself if someone else close to him were to die from another accident."

"But I can't take it." Kyouko sscreamed, "I know I'm supposed to be strong, but I can't do it. I feel like a failure. I thought it was bad before, but this;" her voice broke as she was racked with sobs.

"You have to remember how you feel right now. Can you take this experience and allow it to help you?"

Kyouko sat in thought. _'How could this possibly help me?'_ she couldn't see it and she doubted that she ever could.

"That's what you meant then." Kyouko spoke up quietly. "I can change things and stop this from happening. Is that all I have to do? Just say that I love him to prevent all of this from happening?"

Rick was stone-faced as he replied, "I can't make any guarantees, but it can't hurt at this point."

"I feel like I shouldn't, like I'd mess everything up. Each time I thought about going through with it, I thought about that high school girl, about how I thought he'd always be around. I even thought about how I delighted in the fact that he couldn't be happy. That meant he would never act on anything. Then I didn't have to either. As long as I could avoid it and deny it, then that was good wasn't it? At least I wouldn't get him into any trouble."

"Looking around now, can you really say that? Is this a future that you want? I hate to be so negative, but like I said with your current route, there's no doubt that headline will happen. It's not just about telling him how you feel. It's about doing what you need to do and doing everything in your power to make sure that something happens or doesn't happen."

Kyouko looked at the headstone again, and up at the clear sky. It couldn't end like this. Everyday she would kick herself for not trying. Hadn't that been what she told herself from the beginning? Even if she was going to be rejected, it was worth it. Kyouko told herself that but then did everything to stop herself from taking any action. Not anymore. Even if it meant he would only be around her as a friend, at least he would be around. Much better than looking at a name on a stone and being surrounded by all of this sadness.

"I see you've reached a decision." He said quietly, "In case you're worried, remember when I said I told him something which was why he cooked that meal with you."

Kyouko turned to look at him as he kept speaking, "I told him to have the woman he loved cast her magic." He began softly, "That way he would get through whatever he had to face."

"You mean that.." She began as he nodded.

"You are in high school, are you not?"

"Me? It's me that he loves?" Kyouko breathed, in shock. She could hardly believe it.

"What's more I think you know the answer better by now, but remember when I asked you, when did you know? You said it was awhile ago, but I'm curious to know how long of a while that really was?"

Kyouko paused for a moment before she answered, "Back in Karuizawa. I was told something bad about a stone that I have. He hugged me and told me that the person who gave it to me had grown and could fly as much as he wanted."

Rick smiled, "Did you ever stop to think about how he might know that?"

Kyouko stopped again as he chuckled,

"Never mind, you'll learn that soon enough."

"Thank you for this." Kyouko said quietly, "I'll be sure to do all I can to make sure this doesn't happen."

"You should really thank him." he nodded, "That's why it had to be you. He's worked hard to be a better person, and with your help he's nearly done it. I said that the past shapes the future. Much as your past has shaped you into who you are. So his has done the same for him." Rick paused for a moment, "Everything happens for a reason. Do you think that this has all been happening at precisely the right moment with the purpose of bringing you two together?"

Kyouko'e eyes widened at that, _'No way!'_ she thought as she turned to him.

Rick gave another laugh, "Just some food for thought. Hopefully you can remember that and help each other."

Kyouko smiled at him as he continued,

"Just make sure to tell him this. I don't blame him and neither does she. I'm happy with who he has become, though I would be more happy if he would stop hiding as that only makes it that much worse. No matter how hard you try, you can never get rid of the parts that make you who you are. You can also try to tempt fate, but it works out the way it's meant to. That's what I mean by no guarantees. If what you just saw is meant to happen, then it will and there's nothing that can be done to stop it."

Kyouko could feel her tears again, and looked down,

"Still," He said, "Even in the short time I've met you, you both are a couple of the strongest people I know. If you are meant to be together then that is precisely what will happen. I can't help but think that something so strong isn't meant to be torn apart in such a short amount of time." he turned and started walking, "Good luck and it was my pleasure to help you guys along. Take care.

Kyouko could feel the tears building up as she remembered the images she had just seen and the feeling inside of never being able to see the man she loved again. Never being able to talk to him, feel him or touch him.

"Goodbye." Kyouko gave another wave to the retreating figure.

With that the scene faded and Kyouko was back in Ren's guest room. Sitting up she was startled to see him in her bed.

She looked at him. He was okay! And also very much alive. "Thank goodness you're okay!" Kyouko cried out as her eyes filled with tears and her heart constricted, the details of her dream still all too clear.

"I heard you screaming about how you were supposed to be strong. I figured you were having another bad dream. I tried to wake you but you wouldn't respond. I hate watching you in such pain and not being able to do anything." Ren clenched a fist as she looked at him.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Kyouko shook her head absently, "It seemed so real." She said quietly. "I was sitting there and then you...I was so... and you were..."

"It's okay." Ren replied in a soothing tone as he rubbed her shoulder, "You don't have to say anymore." He finished, holding Kyouko close as her body shook with sobs.

When he was sure she was done, he started to get up but the hand around his arm held him back.

"What is it?"

"I'm sorry to trouble you," Kyouko stopped as her face got hot. "I'd like to go with you. I don't want to be alone right now. I know it probably seems stupid to you but..."

"I don't think it's dumb at all. I'm happy to do whatever makes you feel better."

Kyouko smiled as she wiped her tears, "Thank you."

Lifting her up, his eyes never left hers as he carried her to his room. Placing her down in the bed, he moved the pillows so that she was comfortable before he got in, leaving the light on the nightstand on. Wrapping his arms around her, Ren pulled Kyouko close. They faced each other as he saw her close her eyes. He closed his as well, though he didn't fall asleep. In the silence of the night he could hear her whisper,

"I was so scared, I thought I had lost you. I don't know what I would do if you weren't around. How could I live without you?"

He opened his eyes when he felt her trembling hand against his face. Resisting the urge to grab it and pull her even closer to him, he closed his eyes instead, delighting in the feel of her touch. He was completely caught off guard when he felt her soft lips press gently against his.

He gave in then, pulling her closer to him, parting his lips in response. Her tongue timidly probed his mouth before he let out a low groan and took over. Ren returned the kiss, savoring the taste of her. His hand tenderly touched Kyouko's cheek, wiping away the fresh tears. She sighed, her whole body shivering against him, one hand deep in his hair while the other rubbed his face, mimicking his movements as she traced his lips before venturing back into his mouth. They went on like this for awhile, giving and taking. She moaned against his lips and he broke the kiss then, their breathing ragged. Any longer and he wouldn't be able to control himself.

"I'm so so-" Kyouko began but Ren cut her off.

"I'm not." he said as he kissed her lightly again. Unable to help himself he moved his lips up to her forehead, her nose and then her cheeks.

Kyouko let out a rapid breath as Ren moved down to her neck and then her collarbone as she whimpered, her hands shook again as she held his face in between them. That was enough for him to stop.

Taking a deep breath, Kyouko looked at him and said, "I should go, it's not my intention to make things any harder for you, but before I do there is something I wanted to say."

"You're welcome to stay." Ren replied. No way was he going to push his luck right now, not when she was so close to running again. He moved her back into his arms before saying, "Good night."

"Good night Tsuruga-san or Hizuri-san." Kyouko replied as she closed her eyes, "Whatever you want to be called, I love you."

* * *

**A/N:** Thanks for reading. Sorry for the heavy negative tone. I admit it was somewhat difficult for me to write so I hope I was able to show enough emotion. I hope you liked my take on the past, present and future. I did my own thing with the Corn stone since I didn't want any spoilers in light of reading Ch 203 as I merely write fanfics about Nakamura-sensei's magnificent work. Down to two more chapters which I will also try to get out at the same time. Also I will name names in the next update!


	9. Confession

**I do not own Skip Beat!**

**Thanks for your reviews! Names coming up in the next chapter.**

* * *

Ren couldn't believe what he just heard.

_'She did just say that she loved me, right? Not only that but she also knows my real name.' _Ren lay there for a few minutes, trying to wrap his head around everything before finally he asked himself,_ "But how?"_

He resisted the urge to wake Kyouko up. With the rough night she'd had, he could wait a few hours. They had Friday off so there would be plenty of time to find out what she knew and also to tell her everything.

"Sweet dreams, Kyouko. I love you, too." He said softly , placing a kiss in her hair before going back to sleep with his arms still wrapped tightly around her.

* * *

Kyouko woke up. Looking at the sleeping face next to her she had finally reached an answer to her ongoing decision. Unfortunately she wasn't ready just yet. One more day and she would be okay.

"Good morning." Kyouko said shyly, "I'm not sure what I should call you."

"How do you know?" he asked her.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she recalled her dream. Seeing them, Ren spoke up, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry."

"No, it's not that." Kyouko replied quickly, "I was just thinking about what I saw. It was the dreams." she finished quietly.

"Well it seems, you're not the only one who was hiding something." Ren said, "Though what I have to say is far worse." he finished, "After that I hope you'll stay with me and then you can decide for yourself what you want to call me."

Kyouko grabbed his hand in both of hers, "You have nothing to worry about. I love you and I won't leave." she could hardly believe how easy it was to say now. Nothing like the implication of death to make such things seem so trivial.

Pulling her close, Ren replied, "I love you too, Kyouko. I have for quite some time."

Kyouko let out a sigh. She knew as much already but actually hearing him say the words put her more at ease. She looked at him for a moment before she spoke,

"I'm pretty sure I know what you want to tell me." she began, "I meant what I said. I won't leave. But I did want to tell you a little bit about what I saw in my dreams. In the first one I saw you as a boy, but your hair and your eyes were a different color."

"Yes, this isn't how I really look." Ren replied,

"You have blond hair and green eyes. You were with a man with dark hair. You got picked on and he was going after you when he," Kyouko's voice broke. She closed her eyes before she continued, "I'm sorry you've had to deal with that all this time. I wish so badly I could have helped you. That's why you keep the watch."

Ren closed his eyes as he felt the watch, "Every time I was with you it made me forget him. I thought that was a bad thing but then I remembered what he said."

"He said he didn't want you to live your life for someone else." Kyouko finished quietly as she reached over to touch Ren's face. With a smile she kept talking, "He also told me to tell you that he doesn't blame you and neither does she."

"But she called me a murderer." Ren stated.

"I can't say that I know what you've been through, but from now on I'll be right here to help you. You made a promise to me when we were the Heel Siblings that you wouldn't act unlike yourself, that you would be the actor that I continue to respect. So I promise you the same. I want to continue to make you proud of me professionally and I also promise to always be there for you."

Ren held onto Kyouko's hand as she continued, "As for the murderer comment, if she no longer blames you that's good. At the time you were alive and he was dead. He went after you so you were to blame. Accidents happen. " Kyouko stopped as a shiver went through her, remembering the recent accident she had witnessed. "Tragedies happen everyday, but we have to deal with the loss whether we want to or not and move on. Live on as they would want us to." she finished as a tear rolled down her cheek.

Ren wiped it away as Kyouko held onto his hand.

"I have tried my best to conquer the darkness inside of me, and with your help I've managed to get a better hold over it." He said.

Kyouko nodded, "He said as much, but I hope you don't keep trying to hide it. Holding it in just makes things worse, then you won't be able to control it."

"I think I've come to terms with everything now. That and I have more to be happy about these days." Ren said, looking to Kyouko, "So how did you find out who I was?"

Kyouko let in a sharp gasp as, "It was a dream of the future." she responded. "When the accident happens, you and Chiori will be," Kyouko was unable to finish the thought. "First I saw mother and father and then I saw who you were on your gravestone." she said.

'_No wonder she didn't want to talk about it.'_

Kyouko's voice broke through his thought. "I'm sure you think it's crazy but I saw you. It was a man with blond hair and green eyes that gave me the paper. He was your height too. Rick said you had a chance to prevent what occurred and chose me because of your feelings toward me." she stopped, "That you thought of me last before you died." Kyouko paused, then continued, "He also told me about the Omurice. To have the woman you love cast her magic on it. I couldn't figure out why I was there. I also thought you did it because you were scared of doing the car scene."

Ren shook his head. He was floored. All he could do was rub Kyouko's back gently. He couldn't figure out how it was possible but he couldn't argue that she had seen and heard different events from his life.

"It was around that time that I started to feel the dark side of me coming out. You saw it, how I was in the car."

Kyouko nodded "And during that fight outside of the clothing store too." she mentioned as he closed his eyes and kept speaking,

"I might as well start from the beginning. It's true. My name is Kuon Hizuri, my parents are Kuu and Julie Hizuri. You and I actually met before LME. I am the boy back in Kyoto who gave you your stone."

Kyouko lifted up her tear-streaked face and looked at him, "Corn?" she couldn't believe it, "So when you saw my stone back then, you knew?"

Ren nodded grimly, "Not one of my better moments, I assure you. I was so surprised when I saw it and we weren't on the greatest of terms at that time." he paused looking over at Kyouko, "Please don't be mad, I know I should have said something to you but I couldn't work up the courage. Just like I couldn't work up the courage to tell you how I felt."

"You thought you didn't deserve to be happy. And I feel like I don't deserve to be with someone like you." Kyouko voiced shyly. "Though I am really happy that I've found you again. I was worried. That must be why I felt so good when you told me he was fine."

"When I said I had to get out from under my father's wings, I was talking about my dad. Since we shared the same name everyone knew him." Ren stopped as he looked at her. "That's also why I was fired so many times. I couldn't live up to what they expected from me."

Kyouko was quiet now as she intently listened to Ren talk.

"I was picked on because of how I looked and because I was part Japanese. I didn't know how to handle everything going on at the time. Between what I wanted for myself and what was actually happening, I had to do something because at the time I just did nothing and took all of the abuse. I kept it all bottled in and let it consume me. Rick tried to show me how to fight back, but then I took it too far. I hope you're not mad, but I was really happy when I got to see you again."

"I'm not angry, not in the slightest. It's just a lot to take in. Rick said something about everything happening for a reason. He asked me if I thought that this has all been taking place in order to bring the two of us together. I didn't really have an answer."

They lay in bed quietly pondering the thought.

"Do you believe in fate?" Kyouko asked.

"Actually I think I do." Ren replied, "Even though he had his own reasons, if you hadn't recognized me as Cain Heel, President would have never decided to have you by my side and who knows what would have happened?" he paused, then smiled, "I know the answer but I have to hear it from you. How did you know who I was?"

Kyouko answered quickly, "I recognized your dimensions, of course! I had to know so I could make Maria's doll."

"I knew it." Ren laughed as he pulled Kyouko on top of him. "Still, don't you think the real me is much better than a doll?"

Kyouko didn't answer but the blush on her face made him laugh even harder as she hid her face in his shirt, "You're always teasing me."

"But I love it so much. And I love you."

"I love you too-" Kyouko paused for a long moment before her cheeks reddened again, "Ren." she finished quickly.

He smiled happy that the honorific was gone.

"So what about you? Do you believe in fate?"

"You can call me by my name too." Kyouko answered shyly. "To answer your question, yes I do too. As it turns out being dumped by that idiot was the best thing that ever happened to me." she paused, "Even though it started out as revenge, I was able to find myself, and you, through acting. So I'm happy I said yes to him."

"So am I." Ren said hoarsely as he pulled her down into a kiss.

His hands went in her hair, clutching her tightly. He tentatively pressed into her mouth as he gently slid his hands down to caress her naked shoulders. Kyouko moved her hand to the back of his neck, moving on top of him until their bodies were flush against each other. She nibbled his full lower lip and moaned as his tongue slowly traced the curve of her mouth before slipping between her lips. His fingers touched her collarbone then moved to her back, gliding across the surface of her skin as it began to flush and heat. He broke the kiss, his hands cupping her face.

"Kyouko?" he whispered against her lips, "Are you sure?"

"How could this be wrong?" she whispered back, her lust-filled eyes dark and desperate. He kissed her again, and this time she shamelessly wound her right leg around his hip, and then she remembered.

Breaking the kiss, she moved back, "I'm sorry! I got carried away again." she said, "It's not what you think. It's just that I, um, well." she blushed, "Today's not good, but I'll be fine by tomorrow." she finished. Jumping off of him she made a beeline from the bed on her way to the door when he grabbed her.

"I won't ask but I think I understand." he said pulling her back to him, breathing a sigh of relief, '_Thank goodness. I thought for a second there she didn't want to.'_

"I can't believe I forgot so quickly. This whole week has been pretty crazy."

"Don't worry about it. As long as I'm with you I don't care what we do."

Just then Kyouko's stomach growled. His did too.

"It looks like a shower and breakfast are in order." Kyouko remarked.

Two hours later, with breakfast and dishes done, they were both in Ren's living room. He was sitting on the couch while Kyouko lay down with her head in his lap.

"I haven't been to the set the past couple of days. How is everything?"

"Fine. Truthfully things were easier since you weren't around. The most difficult parts were the love scenes." Kyouko responded quietly. "Every time you kissed me, I broke character. It was ridiculously embarrassing." she added.

"I wouldn't usually admit this but the same thing happened with me."

"Seriously? No, you're joking. You just want to make me feel better. I'm sorry for being so shameless."

"I couldn't help it. I loved you, Kyouko. What can I say, I'm human. I'm not perfect."

"You're perfect enough." she retorted.

"As are you, my love." he replied, taking her hand in his.

"We better finish shooting them soon, I think it will be that much harder." Kyouko said with a sigh.

Ren chuckled, "Well at least you won't run away when Director Shingai talks about our great chemistry."

"There you go again." Kyouko remarked as she pretended to pout. "I suppose I should get used to you teasing. I'll get you someday."

* * *

Kyouko looked over to the clock as she unconsciously reached for the paper. 11:00 a.m. The car would be here in half an hour. Groaning she saw the headline was unchanged. Stuffing it back in her bag she tried to hold back tears.

_'I thought I could do something to change this outcome, but I think this could possibly be our last full day together. What if I have changed it and it happens tonight?'_

Quickly Kyouko looked down at the date, sighing heavily when she saw tomorrow's date was still on it. It wouldn't be tonight, but at the moment it would surely be tomorrow.

She got her bag together and said goodbye to Ren's empty condo before locking the door and getting in the car.

Once there she had to finish some minor tasks for the LoveMe section, though Kyouko didn't see the point. Taking a breath, she closed her eyes, deciding not to be so negative about everything. This was their day to shine and show everyone how great being at LME was. No matter what the past two years were a couple of the best ones of Kyouko's young life. New friends, a new job, a new love. She had been through a lot but had also gained a lot and wanted to show just how much she appreciated it.

"Are you guys ready for this evening." Chiori asked as she opened her locker.

Kyouko held back tears as she answered, "I'm ready for tonight, but not for tomorrow."

Chiori put an arm around her as Kanae walked in. "Mou! The traffic is already terrible this time of day." she growled as she turned to Kyouko. Softening, she walked over to her friend, "Kyouko, what's wrong?"

"Nothing changed, she sobbed. I told him I loved him but nothing changed. I don't know what else to do."

"You told him you loved him! What did he say." Chiori asked,

"He said he's been in love with me for a while." Kyouko replied,

"Don't worry Kyouko." Kanae said patting her on the shoulder, "That is an act in itself so I think everything will be fine. Besides there's still a whole day left. It wasn't supposed to happen until later tomorrow."

"We're having the show today, so we won't even be here."

"Are you sure? What if something comes up? I've thought a lot about it and if something is meant to happen it will happen. I'm really worried that no matter what, that paper will end up telling the truth." Kyouko remarked as fresh tears poured down her face.

"I know you're worried Kyouko, but so much has changed in a short period of time. I don't think you need to worry, but I know how you get. For now all we can do is go on as we normally would and hope for the best."

Kyouko nodded, "Thank you guys." she said wrapping her arms around each of them.

"Things will be fine. Just watch." Kanae said quietly, trying to convince herself as much as her best friend.

* * *

It was now eight p.m. Kyouko and Ren arrived at his condo together. The night had been exciting. The LoveMe section had performed admirably drawing the attention of the entertainment shows who had been filming live. Lory stole the show of course. Arriving in a red and black ringmaster uniform riding an elephant as he made his way to the stage was something that no one in the audience, or in Tokyo for that matter would not soon forget. The crowd had laughed after he was asked why he chose that particular outfit saying,

"Somedays with all that I deal with, I feel just like I'm running a circus. They can be anything they want and even with a manager it's quite a balancing act. I feel like I'm walking a tightrope some days but I enjoy it and I know that they do too." he finished with a flip of his long jacket.

"So how did you like it tonight?"

"It was fun." Kyouko responded, "I was really nervous at first but stopped thinking about it and had fun. How about you. Did you enjoy the show? We added a couple of things since you saw us at rehearsal."

"I have to say that I did. I'm glad it stayed tasteful, I was worried at rehearsal but I should know by now that President knows what he's doing." Ren stated taking Kyouko into his arms.

"We should eat." Kyouko remarked.

"I'm not hungry."

"I'm scared."

"Of what?" Ren asked getting a little worried.

"Of not knowing." Kyouko replied quietly. "I don't know what will happen tomorrow, or even what will happen with us."

"Now that I have you, I'm not letting you go."

"You can't get rid of me so easily, either." Kyouko responded as she pulled Ren close, "Though I still don't quite understand what you see in me."

"I wish I could get you to see even a fraction of how breathtaking you are." Ren said, placing kisses along Kyouko's neck and the base of her throat, "It was all I could do not to get you alone and take this outfit of yours off so I could have my way with you."

Kyouko closed her eyes as her pulse raced, "Really?" she asked him in a provocative voice. "So you wanted your own private show?"

"Yes." he replied pulling her to him in a kiss.

Ren swore he could feel her heartbeat through his shirt they were so tightly bound together. His left hand trailed under the hem of her blouse to inch toward the bare skin of her lower back. She moaned again as his fingers spread across her skin, claiming it.

"Is this all right?" Ren asked, breaking away.

Kyouko nodded, still breathless.

"If you want to stop, just tell me. I won't let things go too far…but I need you."

Kyouko wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him back in.

Ren pressed her gently against the wall, molding his body tightly to hers. Every muscle, every plane of his was met by Kyouko's curves and softness. His hands traveled down her sides and to her hips, hesitating. She pressed herself more tightly to him in response, all as their tongues and lips explored, never satisfied. His long, thin fingers slid to her back and down so that they were cupping her rounded bottom. He squeezed tentatively, and smiled against her mouth when she moaned.

"You're perfect. Every part of you. But this…" He squeezed her again and began kissing her with renewed vigor, lifting her leg up as she moved against him. He was slipping so he broke the kiss again.

Kyouko sighed at the loss of his lips and suddenly wished that more of her could be exposed under those wonderful hands.

"I think I might want to show you my research now." Kyouko said softly.


	10. A Night to Remember, A Beautiful Day

**Lemon coming up. This one sort of took on a life of its own (like 3600+ words of a 4200+****word chapter) so I apologize in advance to those who feel it's too much. Don't ask me the word count before I chopped it but that's where my mind went once I got into it. Just scroll down to the next to last line break if you want to pass it on by. Everything I took out has been mostly used in my Body Heat oneshot. Oh and the thoughts are expanded from the "research" in Chapter Three. Continuity and all that.**

* * *

"Research?" Ren asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kyouko only nodded, as a blush creeped up to her face. "For the filming. I was supposed to take the initiative in our love scenes." she paused as she felt heat rush to her face, "All this time spent with you I've imagined how it would feel. I really had to think about acting on it but since this might be our last night together, I thought I'd show you how much I want-" Kyouko paused again, "I want you." she finished quietly.

They made their way to the room as Ren smiled. He never thought he'd see the day where she would actually say those three words she whispered to him that morning on set. Moving closer, Ren lightly ran his fingers down Kyouko's cheek. "I'm glad that you're able to be so open with me."

Kyouko nodded as she looked up at him and smiled, "I had no idea how you felt." she said. "I just didn't see myself that way and never imagined you could either."

"I'll take as much time as I need to show you." he whispered.

Rens's lips closed over Kyouko's, kissing her firmly, coaxing her silently to open up for him. Their tongues moved together slowly, unhurried. Right now, nothing else mattered, it was just the two of them. He pulled her to him until her petite frame pressed up against his tall, muscular one.

Once he broke the kiss, Kyouko slowly pushed him back to the wall, then kissed her way down Ren's muscled torso. Grabbing his sides lightly, she started at his chest she took a nipple into her mouth, lightly biting it before giving a light flick on it with the tip of her tongue. She did the same thing to the other side before she moved her mouth down slowly, her hands now lightly grazing down his ribs.

_'Use these techniques when pleasing a man orally. Get to know them and you'll be able to explore them. He's sure to get off and he'll be more than happy to return the favor.'_

When her mouth and hands hit the waistband of his pants, Kyouko moved quickly, unbuckling Ren's belt and unzipping his pants, taking him out. She stopped for a minute, delighting in the feel of the firm warmth in the palm of her hand. Gliding her hand up and down slowly, hearing him above her sent a shock wave of pleasure straight between her legs.

Moving down to her knees, Kyouko took him into her mouth, licking his head as she sucked him in deeper, whirling her tongue slowly around him. As she pulled back, her hand massaged his shaft releasing it as her mouth covered it over and over, tasting the small drops of sweet saltiness as her mouth pulled back again, keeping her mouth at the tip as she stroked him with her hand, before working him back into her mouth.

Moving her hands further back she cupped his balls in her hand, moving them slowly against each other as her warm, eager mouth worked him in and out, rubbing her tongue along his sensitive underside.

"God, your tongue." Ren whispered as a hand moved to the back of Kyouko's head, running his fingers through her hair as she moved along his shaft.

Another muffled groan got her wet and egged her on as she continued moving her mouth slowly around him, so that she could work him more into it. Moving back again, she got back into her rhythm, moving both her mouth and her hand.

Then going back down she placed her tongue at the back of his scrotum, tracing it over the top and then up the underside of him all the way to the tip. Moving back, she let her tongue follow in a corkscrew pattern, licking under the head for a few seconds before moving to the tip.

"Yes!" Ren cried out, then hissed loudly as she felt him twitch in her mouth.

Looking up at him she pulled back, watching his eyes close as he emptied himself into her mouth. She took her time licking and lapping him gently before she got up. Making her way to the bathroom to clean up, Kyouko was surprised when Ren grabbed her and kissed her, running his hands along her back. Kyouko went to turn off the light but he stopped her.

"I want to see you." Ren stated.

_'Men are voyeurs, and they get turned on visually. So why deprive them of what they want to see? Stop turning the lights out and allow him the pleasure of looking at you.'_ Kyouko nodded, blushing slightly and allowed Ren to take control, his scent engulfing her as he picked her up and lay her back in the bed.

Her cheeks were flushed, her body trembling slightly in anticipation. She sat up, removing the rest of her clothing and throwing it on the side of the bed. All she was left in was a red lace bra that matched the costume she had been wearing earlier. Taking it off, her nipples hardened as the cool air hit them. Kyouko gave him her best seductive look before moving back into the soft sheets of the bed. Ren made his way over to her.

"Not just yet," Kyouko stated, "There's something I wanted to show you."

_'__A man wants to know what pleases you. Getting to know your body and pleasuring yourself is one way to do this. It's guaranteed to drive him wild and you'll gain the confidence needed to tease him into oblivion. Self confidence is also a turn on.'_

Blowing out a slow breath, Kyouko began. Closing her eyes, she put one hand on each breast. She tried to imagine they were his hands, pretending the weight of him was on top of her as his lips found her most sensitive areas. She tentatively stroked a nipple, sighing at the sensation it created. Taking more, she gently kneaded her heated flesh. Next she trailed the fingers of her right hand down between her thighs, hoping that soon he would be there, stroking her.

Kyouko realized that she wanted to lose control, to let Ren do what he wanted to please her. Next, she lightly circled her clit, amazed at the tingling it brought to her body. She couldn't help but cry out as she found a rhythm, slowly working herself into a heightened state of need. The scent of her arousal filled the air as tension started to build in her stomach and his eyes darkened.

Moving over her Ren placed soft kisses at the base of Kyouko's throat, moving up along her jawline until he reached her ear. Watching her reactions at her own hands only broke down his resolve that much more, he was hard and aching for her and could only hope she was ready too.

"How about now?" Ren said, his voice husky with need. "You have no idea how hot you are." he added, capturing a nipple in his mouth.

Kyouko arched her hips against him as she spread her legs, still moving her fingers, stroking herself in small, circular motions that soon had her pressing against the swirling sensation as her whole body now arched into him.

"I want to bury myself deep inside of you and watch your face as you take every inch of me."

Kyouko gasped again, her face flushed even more as her temperature increased. She thought she was going to explode as she slowed down the pace of her fingers. Ren cupped a breast before running his palm lightly across both of them, pinching them gently until she cried out.

His other hand joined hers down below. Taking two fingers, he penetrated her, moving them in and out while her fingers continued to work her swollen, slick nub as his fingers moved faster. Kyouko's eyes were closed with her head thrown back, her lips slightly parted and the faint blush that painted her features made her look so captivating beneath him. It took every ounce of willpower Ren had not to hold her down and show her exactly what she did to him. He could feel her trembling.

"Please. I want you inside me." She said as he kissed her slowly, taking her mouth again like he'd soon be taking her body.

Kyouko's free hand moved up around his neck as her fingers dug into his hair. He positioned himself at her entrance, barely sinking into her before her orgasm rocked her, coating them both with a wave of moisture as he moved in further. Ren encountered hardly any resistance as Kyouko clenched tightly around him, drawing him in even deeper.

A minute later, the twinge of pain temporarily overrode her waves of pleasure. After a couple of minutes, still shuddering around him, Kyouko grabbed his hips, pushing him further into her. Ren looked down at her as he sheathed himself fully inside her. Her eyes were now barely open and her swollen, wet lips called out to him as he kissed her again. She moaned into his mouth.

Kyouko's gasps and sighs continued as Ren spread her legs more, moving them closer to her as he slowed his pace. He could keep this up for as long as he liked, which was good since he had waited so long for this exact moment. If this was going to be their only time together, he wanted to make it last as long as he could.

The feel of him pulling all the way out and then stretching her tore out another moan from her. His forearms were on the bed on either side of her, her breasts pressed to his chest. She opened her eyes and looked at him as he drove into her. It felt as if she were made for him and he couldn't get enough. She gripped his biceps, digging her nails into him as he filled her up.

"You're so beautiful." He whispered.

She blushed, "Seeing the way you look at me makes me feel like I am."

"You feel so good." He said, giving her a light kiss before moving her legs back down, placing them on either side of him.

Planting her feet into the bed, Kyouko ran her fingers over the rough skin of his face, moving them back again to sink them deep into his hair. He moved to kiss her throat before licking her earlobe. Her lips found him as well, touching his cheek and moving to his ear as he thrust furiously into her.

He moved then, taking her mouth again, pressing his tongue against hers. His lips continued to move as deliberately as his thrusts which only re-ignited the flame burning throughout her body. Kyouko gasped loudly, the coil in her abdomen ever so slowly tightening again.

Kyouko's thighs shook around him as she moved her hands lower, gripping his back as he increased his movements. She closed her eyes as she felt him deep within her. She dug her nails into his back, her body urging him on as she cried out with every thrust. He felt so good, her skin prickled with goosebumps, while tingling rippled through every part of her body.

"Let me know if you want me to stop."

Kyouko shook her head. Even if it was overwhelming there was absolutely no way she would ever stop him. Kyouko had no idea he would feel so good. She wished she could keep him right here, all the time.

"I love everything about you." he said as his lips lightly grazed her heated skin,

Kyouko could only whimper breathlessly in response. Looking at him, she smiled as she moved a hand over his muscled chest. Kyouko trembled and knew she was close, wrapping her legs tightly around Ren as she screamed. Her wet heat clamped down, squeezing around him until he found his release as well. His mouth moved over her sweat-kissed skin, while his surges continued.

Minutes later, her tremors were still going strong as they both gulped in air. Finally, Ren pulled out of her and fell down on the bed. Kyouko sat still, waiting for the fog in her head to clear as he traced slow circles on her thigh. She could already feel the heat pool back in between her legs.

"How do you feel?" Ren asked softly reaching up to take her hand.

"I feel fine. Better than fine." Kyouko replied with a smile as he pulled her closer to him. "I love you, Ren."

He smiled as he rubbed her back, "I love you too, Kyouko." was the last thing she heard as she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Kyouko woke up starving. Looking around, she couldn't find her way in the dark. As her stomach growled, she felt around on the ground, grabbing the first thing she got her hands on before making her way to the kitchen. If she was this hungry, he was sure to be too. Opening the refrigerator, she sighed in relief as she found some leftovers. Taking them out and grabbing a bottle of water she grabbed a pan and turned the stove on, heating up the rice and the chicken.

'_The last time I ate this late was when we were the Heel Siblings.'_ Kyouko thought as she watched the clock approach two a.m.

Fifteen minutes later, the pan was washed and there was now a heaping plate of food. Just as Kyouko went to reach for the dish, strong hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her flush against hard muscle. She leaned into Ren as his hands roamed over her waist and stomach before gripping her breasts.

"Mmm, I figured you'd be hungry." Kyouko said as she turned to him, then swatted his hand away and reached for the plate.

"Seeing you in nothing but my open shirt is making me hungry for something all right." Ren said as he backed Kyouko into the refrigerator, taking a nipple in his mouth.

Kyouko closed her eyes and sighed, trying not to let his mouth mess up her train of thought or make her drop the plate,

"You need food." Kyouko said firmly, moving away from him and placing the plate down on the counter. "Even if I have to feed you myself, you're going to have something."

Ren's eyes lit up as he replied, "That's fine with me." he said as his lips worked along her jawline.

"No distracting me." Kyouko said as she picked up the chopsticks and grabbed some rice. "Here. Eat this."

She watched as he slowly worked his tongue between the sticks, taking the rice before slowly removing his mouth from the chopsticks. Kyouko could feel the dampness between her legs immediately as she imagined him somewhere else.

_'Two can play that game.'_ Grabbing some rice, Kyouko opened her mouth, taking both sticks into her mouth, before snaring the rice then moving them out as slowly as he had.

Next Kyouko grabbed some chicken, dipping it into the teriyaki before bringing it to her lips. She felt some of the sauce drip from her mouth as she finished chewing, but Ren was quick, capturing it on his thumb. Feeling bold, Kyouko took it into her mouth, working her tongue around slowly before closing her mouth, sucking lightly as he pulled it out.

With a groan, Ren captured her mouth again. Their food all but forgotten as their tongues touched, moving slowly against each other before he snatched her tongue between his lips, sucking it before moving to her lip. Kyouko mimicked his movement, doing the same thing, while also flicking against his tongue lightly.

Ren pulled her against him as she opened her legs, wrapping them around him as her hands went to the back of his neck. The clanging of the plate as he moved her into the counter caused her to come out of her haze as she remembered the food.

"Nice try." Kyouko said as she put her feet back on the ground, then opened the drawer, "It almost worked, but we still have to finish this." Kyouko said, handing him the chopsticks and grabbing a pair of her own.

Ten minutes later, the plate was empty. Kyouko ran some water and cleaned the items. She had barely put them away when she felt Ren's hands picking her up. Kyouko let out a squeak as he placed her on the counter.

"Now I can finally get some dessert." he responded with a grin, spreading her legs.

Breathing deeply against her opening before blowing lightly across it, his warm breath caused Kyouko to shiver against him as she ached with the need for him to taste her. Ren flicked his slick tongue out, parting her lips as he started with one long lick from the bottom of her opening to the tip of her clit before going back down and sticking it deep inside of her.

Kyouko arched her hips into him, forcing him even deeper inside of her, his tongue circled inside of her slowly before he moved his mouth up to her swollen and sensitive bud, sucking it gently and then circling it with his tongue.

Kyouko bucked her hips off the counter as she buried her hands in his hair, rocking herself against him as his finger moved lower, penetrating her as he continued the movement with his mouth. He nibbled her clit lightly as he added a second finger. Kyouko cried out as she felt herself tightening against them. Taking them out, Ren moved one down even more, sucking her again as his finger massaged her puckered, sensitive opening, moving it around in slow circles but never going inside.

Kyouko screamed as she came, nearly falling off of the counter, her whole body quaking as she panted his name over and over. With a kiss, Ren lifted her up, wrapping her legs around him again as he carried her back to the bed, pulling her on top of him. He buried his face in the curve of her shoulder and kissed her throat as he withdrew nearly all the way before plundering her wet warmth, grabbing her hips and lifting her up and down on top of him, a moan punctuated every thrust.

Moving her back to the sheets, Ren started his rhythm again. Kyouko turned her head on the pillow as a cry escaped her lips. She felt as if her legs might give out as he pumped his hips. Still she wanted him to go harder and faster.

"Ren, can you please-" Kyouko paused as she blushed, "Can you do it harder?"

Their eyes met as he obliged, a low growl escaping from him as he thrust more vigorously into her. Hearing the primal sound from him heightened her arousal.

"Tell me if it's too much." he said, placing a kiss on her forehead before a hand found her perfectly rounded rear.

Pulling her to him, he placed each of her feet on his shoulders, increasing his movements to a frenzied pace while the back of her thighs rocked against his torso, making a light slapping sound. Bracing himself with his other hand, the cries tumbled from Kyouko's lips as she now felt the most all consuming, agonizing pleasure she had ever felt, her whole body now bouncing against him with every powerful thrust.

Kyouko's breath came out in gasps now as Ren changed to a different angle, going even deeper and hitting a spot so sensitive she lost all sense of reality, every nerve in her body now pulsing. She felt like her body would shatter, her vision blurred and swam as her desire rushed through her. Any other thought was gone as she screamed with reckless abandon. Kyouko's arms and legs tightened, as she felt an ache build within her.

"Ren." she whimpered as she gripped the sheets.

Releasing the damp sheets, Kyouko moved her hands. She used one to squeeze her breast and the other went back between her thighs. Just like that, all of his self control was gone.

"You'll be the death of me." Ren rasped as he crushed his mouth to hers, holding her in place as she reached her peak again.

His hands were on either side of her head in the tangled mass of sheets as he thrust into her fast and hard, sweat dripping from them as he extended her orgasm. Over and over he bombarded her wet opening until she could feel him pulsing inside of her. With two more thrusts his body tensed with his release, as another loud groan sounded from deep in his throat.

They were both still breathing hard as Kyouko sank deeper into the sheets. The cool air felt wonderful against their sweat-slicked bodies while outside, a soft rain had started to fall. Ren wiped the damp hair from her forehead as he met her lips in a slow kiss.

She took control this time, tracing the length of his lips with her tongue before sliding it into his mouth. She traced his teeth and his tongue with her own before slowly moving against his tongue and nibbling on his lower lip. Breaking the kiss, she looked at him in shock when she felt him get hard again inside of her.

Ren smiled apologetically as he said, "I told myself I would take it easy, but it seems you're throwing a wrench in my carefully laid plans."

Kyouko could only smile at him as she pulled him to her, "Speaking of which," she said as she looked at him "I think I might be needing some more-"

Her sentence was cut off with another kiss.

* * *

Kyouko woke up at seven a.m., August 12th, not wanting to leave the warmth of Ren's arms. Her muscles ached in protest but she smiled, remembering how the night and the better part of the morning had gone. She looked over at the man that she loved as tears of sadness fell down her cheeks.

"I don't know if we did enough. This could quite possibly be our last day together."

As a precaution everyone had the day off but Kyouko couldn't help still feeling some anxiety. She knew she would feel much better if she saw a different sentence in the paper. She sat up, feeling even more soreness as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. Padding her way to the guest room, she pulled the paper out of her bag.

She could hardly believe it as she read, letting out a gasp as she scanned it over and over.

The paper was now showing the Entertainment section and had a new date of December 27, 2014 with a headline that read:

**Japan's Number One Acting Couple Married in Intimate Christmas Ceremony**

Kyouko turned to the front page as tears of joy rolled down her cheeks. Putting it away, she didn't need to read anymore. She couldn't stop the tears even as she climbed back in bed. Life as she knew it would go on and she could spend another day with the man she loved. Relief washed over Kyouko in and her stress level went from overloaded to non-existent. Ren stirred as she put her head down next to his chest.

Pulling her close to him, he could see her crying as he asked in a voice thick with sleep, "Kyouko, what's wrong?"

Kyouko looked at him and smiled, giving him a kiss before replying,

"Nothing at all. I couldn't be more happy than I am being here with you."

* * *

**A/N**: Thanks for reading! That was always my planned ending so that's it for this story. And no it wasn't the sex that changed the headline unless you want it to be :P. 21 hours had passed since she last looked so I'd like to think it changed an hour or two after she last checked. Was that too much? Not enough? I'm excited to get to my other story and do hope that you will join me. If not thanks for taking the time to review, read and check this story out as it helped me **SO** much more than you realize. I really appreciate the love!

With that done on to the usual:

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